But you know, the more I think about this, the more I'm not sure _how_
they are going to write their ToS to deal with this.
I mean, the whole _point_ of the cover images there was to allow a
client to put a picture of a cover next to a GBS link. Isn't that
exactly what we are trying to do?
Can they really get away with writing ToS that say "you are allowed to
use these covers next to a link to GBS, but ONLY if you are not a
library or someone else who is the target market for Bowker, Ingram, etc
services. You can only use it if Bowker et al are NOT trying to sell you
a cover image service."
Or, "you can only use it if you're not a library."
I mean, what are the terms going to say exactly? Amazon dealt with
these complaints by those in the business of selling covers by saying
"You can only use our whole API if the primary purpose of your website
is to sell books from Amazon." Making not just cover usage, but really
any use of the Amazon API by libraries pretty much a violation. If
Google goes _that_ route, it'd be disastrous. And besides, the GBS api
was from the start being promoted to libraries (not to mention that they
get much of their content from library partners, unlike google!). So
hopefully they won't do that. But could they say that the book cover
element is only allowed to be used if the primary purpose of your
website is... what exactly?
I'm not sure how they are going to get out of this.
Tim Spalding wrote:
> I just posted something important about the GBS API on the Thingology blog:
> http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2008/06/covers-from-google-too-good-to-be-true.php
>
> Basically, I've been told that I was wrong to promote the use of GBS
> for covers in an OPAC, that the covers were licensed from a cover
> supplier—ten guesses!—and should not have allowed this, and that the
> new GBS API terms of service put the kibosh on the use I promoted.
>
> I'm a big proponent of free covers. I think selling covers is going to
> go away soon. But I do think it's important to respect terms, when
> they are legal. And personally, I'm very uncertain what's allowed and
> what's not.
>
> And I would like to get the heck out of the issue, thank you very much!
>
> Tim
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Fri Jun 06 2008 - 15:26:23 EDT