November 4, 2008

Godzilla vs. Mothra

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Apparently, not every large institution whose charge it is to protect mother literature is giving in to the awesome super-powers of Google and selling out the old dame like a bunch of weasels: “Harvard University Library will not take part in Google’s book scanning project for in-copyright works after finding the terms of its landmark $125 million settlement regarding copyrighted materials unsatisfactory, University officials said yesterday,” reports Laura Mirviss in a story for the Harvard Crimson. Among other complaints, University Library Director Robert C. Darnton — or, as the Crimson prefers to call him, Robert C. Darnton ’60 — told the newspaper, “The settlement provides no assurance that the prices charged for access will be reasonable, especially since the subscription services will have no real competitors [and] the scope of access to the digitized books is in various ways both limited and uncertain.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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