Stop Google Print, For The Children
Google Print upsets children's hospital:
Great Ormond Street children's hospital is worried that that Google's online publishing scheme could cost it much-needed income.Yet another statement of FUD, this time from an unlikely source: a hospital orphanage. Incidentally, as the article mentions, Peter Pan has already been available for free via Project Gutenberg for more than a decade.The hospital, which receives all the royalties from sales and performances of Peter Pan in the UK, fears that it could suffer a drop in revenue if Google includes the children's classic in its plan to scan, digitise and make searchable the world's books.
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity has received royalties from Peter Pan since 1929. An Act of Parliament, passed in 1988, extended the book's copyright indefinitely. If people stopped buying the book, and accessed it through Google's service, the hospital — which cares for seriously ill children — fears it could lose millions of pounds.
Perhaps if the State was not in the business of subsidizing social services (such as funding orphanages) which in turn drives out viable alternatives, royalties would not necessarily be an issue. Be sure to read From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 (pdf or Google Print).
Comments (1)
P.M.Lawrence
That comment about the state subsidising social services, while accurate otherwise, is a red herring here. The Peter Pan copyright for the hospital in fact goes back to an earlier era, and it is actually a residue of the older charitable endowment basis for running these things. It would remain significant even without state provision of services.
The only anomaly is that this time it happens to be intellectual property. But attempts to undercut this particular asset generally benefit the likes of corporatists such as Disney. It is a special case, covered by a particular law, not part of copyright law generally.
Published: November 8, 2005 4:14 AM