Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library and a distinguished historian, comments on the proposed Google settlement in the New York Review of Books. The settlement, which is still subject to final approval by the courts, resolves the breach-of-copyright suit brought by authors and publishers against Google for Google Book Search, its mass book-digitization project. Last fall, when the terms of the settlement were released, Harvard announced that it will not allow Google to scan any in-copyright books under its terms.
A Guide for the Perplexed, a report commissioned by the Association of Research Libraries and the American Library Association, summarizes the complex terms of the settlement.
