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Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement

An Open Workshop at Harvard Law School

July 31, 2009

Sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Harvard Law School Library, and Professors Charles Nesson, John Palfrey and Phil Malone


Scope and Goals

The proposed Google Book Search settlement creates the opportunity for unprecedented access by the public, scholars, libraries and others to a digital library containing millions of books assembled by major research libraries. But the settlement is controversial, in large part because this access is limited in major ways: instead of being truly open, this new digital library will be controlled by a single company, Google, and a newly created Book Rights Registry consisting of representatives of authors and publishers; it will include millions of so-called “orphan works” that cannot legally be included in any competing digitization and access effort, and it will be available to readers only in the United States. It need not have been this way.

This workshop seeks to bring a fresh, unique perspective to a complex and widely debated topic. It will focus not on the specific merits and demerits of the settlement itself, or the particular antitrust and privacy and other objections that have been raised. Instead, it will examine the idea of possible alternative universes and offer specific proposals for scenarios that may arise whether or not the settlement is approved. What can libraries, or universities, or non-profits, or Congress, do in the current landscape? And how might these possibilities help us to define a better world than the one that we have today and, more importantly, than the one that will exist if the Google settlement is approved in its current form? Regardless of what happens with respect to the Settlement, what alternative possibilities could lead to a richer, more open and better information ecosystem than the one we have today or might have tomorrow with the Settlement?

By exploring these alternatives, this workshop seeks, in the end, to help inform the debate over the Settlement and its terms and to illuminate some of the key policy considerations that are at stake. Its ultimate goal is to develop a series of options and proposals that could improve on the status quo in novel ways.

Proposed Topics

Here are some tentative topics for beginning discussion at the workshop. We welcome feedback on these suggestions and encourage you to contribute your own proposals. We'll choose several of the topics to be incorporated into our agenda. (To edit this wiki, you must register for an account via the link in the upper right hand corner of this page). For suggestions, please be sure to include your name and email address on the page so that others may contact you with similar ideas/further questions/suggestions. The deadline to submit a proposal is Wednesday, 7/22 at 3 PM ET.

  1. What might truly open access to orphan works look like
  2. What might a truly “open” digital collection created by major libraries look like
  3. What might a truly “open” global library look like
  4. What would a truly “open” digital library look like
  5. What might truly open access to and use of an online digital library look like
  6. What might online, digital publishing and access look like going forward
  7. Are all of these the same? Within the open environment what is closed?
  8. Intellectual Freedom = Unrestricted Access to Information + No Monitoring of Use (MarcEPIC)
  9. Payment of processing (author) fees to publishers of journals and monographs
  10. How could the proposed Google Books settlement change the landscape for alternative projects like the Internet Archive? How should such projects adapt so as to remain a viable alternative?

Post-deadline Submissions

  1. How can we ensure that digital libraries maintain the same privacy protections that non-digital libraries have worked hard to build and preserve?

Resources

Please add links to papers, articles, blogposts, and other items related to GBS and of interest to workshop participants to this page.

Agenda

8:00 a.m. – Registration and refreshments

8:30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. -- Opening Remarks – Professor John Palfrey

8:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Session 1:


What opportunities are we missing with the GBS settlement? What might a truly “open” digital collection look like? What might it be if it were created or run by major libraries? What can we learn from the Open Content Alliance project/Internet Archive, the Human Knowledge Project, Project Guttenberg and others? What are the prospects for alternative digital library efforts in the shadow of the Google settlement, if it is approved? If it is modified? If it is not approved?

  • John Palfrey
  • Siva Vaidhyanathan (Invited)
  • Maura Marx (Invited)


10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Break

10:45 a.m. – noon – Session 2:


What might truly open access to orphan works look like? Would it be a public domain claim to open, fair and free use of orphan works? Orphan works legislation that lets other digital libraries offer access to orphan works? Opportunities for orphan works to move into the public domain or to be offered with Creative Commons or similar open licenses? What should be done with any revenues generated by orphan works under the Settlement or any equivalent? How well does the Settlement serve these goals, and what does it not do? What is the role of Congress in shaping this critical aspect of copyright policy? What would be the impact of the Settlement on the likelihood of orphan works legislation?

  • Phil Malone
  • Charlie Nesson (tentative)
  • James Grimmelman (Invited)
  • Eric Saltzman (Invited)
  • David Weinberger/Lewis Hyde (Invited)


Noon – 1:15 p.m. – Group Lunch on your own at Harkness Commons (informal discussions continue)

1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Pitches for attendee-proposed breakout sessions

1:30 – 3:00 p.m. –Breakout Sessions


Breakout 1 – Privacy and censorship. How can we ensure that digital libraries maintain the same privacy norms and protections that non-digital libraries have worked so hard to build and preserve? What would be the necessary technological features for an online library to be able to replicate the anonymous reading and browsing that patrons largely enjoy in physical libraries? How do we ensure the combination of unrestricted access to information and no monitoring of use that characterize libraries today?

  • Mark Rotenberg
  • Wendy Seltzer (Invited)


Breakout 2 – Open access for research and innovation: What might truly open access to an online digital library look like? What would be the most productive and open scenarios for researchers using an online research corpus for computational “non-consumptive” purposes? How might we best allow non-profit and for-profit rivals to build and offer innovative viewers, search functions, and other applications on top of an “open” database of scanned works?

  • Ethan Zuckerman
  • Harry Lewis (Invited)


Breakout 3 – Libraries as consumers of the online digital library. How do we deal with concerns about pricing of content, and about the durability of digital content that is “rented” rather than owned?

  • John Palfrey


Additional breakout sessions to be determined by attendee proposals and interest


3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. – Meet as a group to hear and discuss summaries of Breakout sessions

3:30 – 3:40 – Wrap-up and Concluding Remarks

Registration and Participants

Registration is now full, but you can email ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu to be alerted about any open seats that do open up.

If you wish for your name to be listed on the wiki in this section, please indicate your preference on the registration form. Registration to this event is free.

  1. John Palfrey, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  2. Phil Malone, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  3. Charles Nesson, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  4. Jennifer Gordon, Harvard Law School Library
  5. Michelle Pearse, Harvard Law School Library
  6. Mary Daniels, Francis Loeb Library / GSD
  7. Joey Mornin, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  8. Chris Peterson, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  9. Lewis Hyde, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  10. Harry Lewis, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  11. David Weinberger, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  12. Amar Ashar, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  13. Siva Vaidhyanathan, http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/, University of Virginia
  14. Ines Zalduendo, Frances Loeb Library / Graduate School of Design
  15. Bill Comstock, Harvard College Library
  16. Mansooreh Saboori, Harvard Law School Library
  17. Dave Davis, Copyright Clearance Center
  18. Bethaney Henshaw, Millipore
  19. Abby Clowbridge, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government Library
  20. Michael Hemment, Harvard College Library
  21. Constance Rinaldo, Ernst Mayr Library/MCZ/Harvard
  22. Martha Creedon, Harvard University Library Office for Information Systems
  23. James Grimmelmann New York Law School
  24. Sue Kriegsman, Harvard College Library
  25. Dee Magnoni Olin College of Engineering
  26. Wendy Seltzer, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  27. Hope Tillman, http://www.hopetillman.com
  28. Walt Howe, Tillman & Howe
  29. Alexa McCray, Harvard Medical School
  30. Eric Saltzman, Creative Commons
  31. Judy Warnement, Botany Libraries/Harvard University Herbaria
  32. Virginia Mcvarish, Harvard College Library
  33. Noelle Ryan, Harvard University Library
  34. Patrick Tracy, Western New England College School of Law Library
  35. Michael Burstein, Harvard Law School
  36. Eugene Curry
  37. Douglas Newcomb, Special Libraries Association
  38. Carolina Rossini, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  39. Robert Darnton, Harvard University Library
  40. Marc Rotenberg, EPIC
  41. Marguerite Avery, MIT Press
  42. Meg Kribble, Harvard Law School Library
  43. Deborah Jackson Weiss, Harvard Law School Library
  44. Thomas Ma, Countway Library/Harvard Medical School
  45. Lorraine Lezama, Clarendon Group
  46. Beardsley Ruml, Consultant
  47. Monica Schieck, ECO/UFRJ
  48. Dr. Zulfiquar Ahmed, department of law and justice, university of RAJSHAHI
  49. Barbara Preece, Boston Library Consortium
  50. Rosanna Kowalewski, UMass Lowell
  51. Eric Hellman, Gluejar, Inc
  52. Hillary Corbett, Northeastern University Libraries
  53. Liza Daly, Threepress.org
  54. Corinna Baksik, Harvard University Library
  55. Maura Marx, Open Knowledge Commons
  56. Amy Lewontin, Northeastern University Snell Library
  57. Michael Fisher, Harvard University Press/Editorial Director
  58. Charles McEnerney, Well-Rounded Radio + ArtsBoston
  59. Karen Nipps, Houghton Library, HCL
  60. Tom Demay, Kirtas Technologies
  61. Kuniko McVey, Harvard-Yenching library
  62. Leora Kornfield, Harvard Business School
  63. Randy Stern, Harvard University Library
  64. Nancy Leon, Suffolk University Law School
  65. Ozkan Kaya
  66. Mahat Somane, Harvard Kennedy School
  67. Nancy George, Salem State College
  68. Jennifer Casasanto, Harvard SEAS
  69. Rebecca Tabasky, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  70. John Deighton, Harvard Business School
  71. Mitchell Reich, Harvard Law School/Student
  72. Adam Holland, Berkman Center / BU School of Law
  73. Sam Bayard, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
  74. Antwuan Wallace, New School University
  75. Rebecca Yadegar
  76. Andrew Fong
  77. Sarah Cortes, InmanTechnologyITcom
  78. Karrie Peterson, Brandeis University
  79. Mary Murrell, University of California, Berkeley
  80. Rebecca Curtin, Harvard University, Department of English
  81. Ellen Duranceau, MIT Libraries
  82. Timothy Vollmer, American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy
  83. Zach Newell, Salem State College
  84. Bill Nehring, MLIS Student - Simmons College
  85. Peter Suber, Berkman Center
  86. Leslie Morris, Houghton Library, Harvard University
  87. MacKenzie Smith, MIT Libraries
  88. Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, Harvard University Archives

Location, Directions, and other Logistical Information

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