Adelphi Charter

John had a nice piece on the RSA Adelphi Charter on his blog last week.

Since then Google have been sued again over their Google Print project which aims to make all the worlds's books searchable online. ZDNet had a report earlier in the week suggesting the American Association of Publishers were behind the lawsuit. The names on the actual complaint, though, are those of some of the major publishers, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster, and John Wiley & Sons.

The AAP president, Patricia Schroeder, said

"The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights. While authors and publishers know how useful Google's search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan, Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers."

Which in translation reads - publishers want a bigger slice of the earnings.

Google spokesman, David Drummond said

"Google Print is a historic effort to make millions of books easier for people to find and buy. Creating an easy-to-use index of books is fair use under copyright law and supports the purpose of copyright: to increase the awareness and sales of books directly benefiting copyright holders. This short-sighted attempt to block Google Print works counter to the interests of not just the world's readers, but also the world's authors and publishers."

Which in translation reads - don't be stupid, we're doing you a favour sending loads more customers your way with no effort on your part; and you want to cash in on our business too?!