Originally published November 27 2005
German publishers to put full book texts online
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The German association of book publishers plans to build a network that will let the full texts of their books to be searched by search engines. Eventually they want to build their own search engine.
German publishers, keen to defend their copyrights as Internet search engines seek to put the world's literature online, aim to set up their own web-based database allowing readers to browse, borrow or buy books.
Search engine Google has angered publishers with proposals to scan copyrighted works without permission to make them searchable online.
The German association of book publishers is planning to build a network by next year that will allow the full texts of their books to be searched online by search engines but will not hand the texts over to these companies.
"We don't want Google to hold the texts in its servers; we want the publishers to keep them," Matthias Ulmer, who is leading the project, told Reuters in an interview at this week's Frankfurt Book Fair.
Ulmer said the association was talking to various search engines and he was confident of reaching a deal with Google.
Ulmer said publishers should learn lessons from the music industry, where revenues have plunged in recent years, partly due to people downloading music from the Internet for free.
"We mustn't make the same mistake and live in the past," he said.
But, he said, it was hard to convince publishers of the importance of the plan because many were not interested in online projects.
"They like the feel, the smell, of books and paper," he said.
However, he said he already had around 100 publishers on board for his project, the initial stage of which should be up and running by April, including around half of the top 100 publishing houses which make up the vast majority of book sales.
He estimated it would cost each publisher around 3,000 euros per year for the server, plus 10 euros for each title in its backlist.
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