The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the American Library Association (ALA) have released a guide titled A Guide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement, authored by Jonathan Band, JD. The guide is designed to help the library community better understand the terms and conditions of the recent settlement agreement between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers concerning Google's scanning of copyrighted works.
Band notes that the settlement is extremely complex and presents significant challenges and opportunities to libraries. His work seeks to outline and simplify the settlement's provisions, with special emphasis on the provisions that apply directly to libraries. The guide and related materials are available from the ARL website at http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/google/.
ARL seeks to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. The organisation pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries; providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities; fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise; and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organisations.
Jonathan Band helps shape the laws governing intellectual property and the Internet through a combination of legislative and appellate advocacy. He has represented clients with respect to the drafting of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other statutes relating to copyrights, privacy, spam, cyber security and indecency.
