Is "a Universal Digital Library" within reach?
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Have a read of this interesting article in the LA Times (at this link) which gives a good overview of the great Google digitisation project. It stalled when the Authors Guild and a group of five publishers alleged copyright infringement. The case eventually ended with the judge ruling that the issues raised were a matter for Congress.
Written by Pamela Samuelson, the faculty director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, the article argues that we should still be striving for a "Universal Digital Library". She outlines how this could happen in the second half of the piece - indeed she evangelises about it!
"Workable solutions exist to fulfil the dream of a universal digital library.
Do we really want to tell our grandchildren that we could have achieved this
goal but lacked the will to do so?"
Mine won't need to, copyright law will be taught right after walking and talking...
