RE: Catalogs.google.com and copyright

For an even bigger copyright problem, perhaps the biggest one ever, see

http://www.archive.org/index.html

Here, consents have almost never been given.

~E

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-cni-copyright[_at_]cni.org [mailto:owner-cni-copyright[_at_]cni.org]On
> Behalf Of Rich Wiggins
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 8:18 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Catalogs.google.com and copyright
>
>
>
> Google has launched a new service that's kind of nifty. It is
> a searchable index of product catalogs. This isn't some fancy
> XML-based multi-vendor integration into a mall; it's a database
> of scanned paper catalogs.
>
> You can search for specific products across all the catalog
> vendors, or you can browse the collection by subject area.
> The "hits" are scanned page images with search terms highlighted.
> Pretty impressive stuff.
>
> These include many major vendors, such as Crate and Barrel, Williams-.
> Sonoma, Crutchfield, Cabela's, Eddie Bauer, etc. One irony is
> that this puts a vendor with a pure Web-based catalog at a
> disadvantage compared to those who still mail trees to people's
> houses.
>
> I did some sample searches. Searches for digital cameras, XM radio,
> entertainment centers, and Gore Tex all went well.
>
> Google does not say on their Web site how they got permission
> to host these hundreds of catalogs. Perhaps they did seek
> and receive permission. Here is the list of catalogs so far:
>
> http://catalogs.google.com/catalog_list
>
> So here is my academic query: if someone were to build such a
> Web-based index of scanned page images from paper product catalogs,
> and if one did not have explicit permission from a given catalog to
> do same, would one not be infringing the catalog publisher's copyright?
>
> /rich
>
Received on Thu Dec 20 2001 - 08:28:45 GMT