Prolific Author Tells Google to Remove His Books From Its Library-Scanning Project.

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Author: Kiernan, Vincent

A well-known scholar and his publisher have demanded that Google withdraw his books from the digital archive that the Internet-search company is compiling from the holdings of five university and research libraries.

"The basic problem is copyright violation," said Jacob Neusner, a research professor of theology at Bard College, who has written more than 900 books (The Chronicle, May 9, 1997).

In an interview Mr. Neusner said that he had asked Google to remove his works from its Google Library project, but Google had insisted that he fill out a separate form for each of his books. That was wrong, said Mr. Neusner, because under copyright law it is Google's responsibility to seek permission to use a copyrighted work.

So the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, which has issued many of his books, took up the banner and insisted that all of its works be removed from Google Library as well.

Jed Lyons, president of Rowman & Littlefield, said his company had not requested a royalty from Google for using the works. Nor will he.

"We think it's unfair and arrogant and disrespectful of publishers' and authors' rights, and we don't want to do business with an organization that thumbs its nose at publishers and authors," he said. But Google, he said, is seeking to change his mind about withdrawing the works. "They're trying to convince us it's a mistake."

A Google representative did not respond to a request for comment. But in the past, Google officials have said that their project is legal because the company will make only short excerpts of copyrighted works available.

"At most we show only a brief snippet of text where their search term appears, along with basic bibliographic information and several links to online booksellers and libraries," the company said in a statement after the Authors' Guild sued Google last month over alleged copyright violations. The Association of American University Presses also has voiced concerns over the library project.

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By Vincent Kiernan