Re: Catalogs.google.com and copyright

A catalog is like any other compilation. I assume the company owns the compilation copyright as well as the underlying artwork copyrights (ie, the photographs and text...if US law applies, either these are employees doing work for hire or contractors who most likely have signed away their copyrights).

Copyright law provides that reproduction of these are the exclusive right of the copyright owner under s.106. So a license is needed, regardless of the benefit or enhancement provided by the wider exposure of the work. I am assuming Google got a license.

One can imagine that there are situations where a company would not want their catalog on the web. If it's not Google, but the TRIPLE-X SEX PORTAL that is doing the scanning and hosting up, as a merchant I might not like my product line being assocated with that search engine, and I might not only claim copyright infringement but false association under the Lanham Act. This kind of distribution might also destroy the scarcity and exclusivity perceived as being associated with certain types of luxury goods that are only available through certain stores in certain locations.

Rich Wiggins wrote:
>
> 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

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