Yes, I protested the presence of my books on Google’s search engine. It was, for me, a big deal. I was a Google early adopter; I found the search engine a week after it debuted via a friend even /g/e/e/k/i/e/r/ more in tune with the Internet than me , and had been using it exclusively ever since. As of November 4th, I haven’t used it again. I recommend http://clusty.com as a better (read as not a den of thieves) alternative.
From: Holly Lisle [e-mail address]
Date: Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:42:11 AM US/Eastern
To: Laura Driussi [ldriussi @google.com]
Cc: Robin Rue [e-mail address]
Subject: Re: [C#37680622] Opting out and getting my books OUT of your databaseDear Ms. Druissi,
I strongly suggest that you try the search engine yourself. By careful searching, I was able to read, without difficulty, through over a hundred pages of one of my novels that you have up. Your program didn’t show a portion of a page — it showed five full pages at a go, and was willing to show them in sequence, page by page by page, until I got tired of looking.
And at least one of my publishers, Tor, had no knowledge that the book TALYN was on your site until my agent notified them of it, so it somehow arrived on Google without either my permission or theirs. How remarkable. They are currently investigating the presence of Tor books on your site.
Given that fact, I find myself wondering if your company’s “permissions” from HarperCollins and Warner to use my books were equally imaginary.
Holly Lisle
On Thursday, November 10, 2005, at 03:40 PM, Laura Driussi wrote:
Dear Ms. Lisle,
I’m writing back to your email just to let you know that your books in Google Print were submitted by publishers, not scanned at libraries.
The current controversy about Google Print is about whether we have the right to scan books at libraries without permission of the publisher. This program is just for search purposes and we don’t even show a full page:
print.google.com/googleprint/ screenshots.html#excerpt
With your books and with all books submitted by publishers, full pages are viewable, but no person can see more than 20% of the pages of the book per month. It’s a marketing program similar to the Amazon Search Inside program, and I see that “Courage of Falcons” is also in the Amazon program.
We have contacted Tor, HarperCollins, and Warner Books about your email. It’s likely they will tell us to remove your books from Google Print, given your strong reaction to it.
While we’re waiting to hear back from them, I just wanted to make sure you understood that your books are in the permission-based part of Google Print.
Best,
Laura
Laura Driussi
ldriussi@google.com
Strategic Partner Manager
http://print.google.comTitle Courage of Falcons
Author(s) Holly Lisle
Publisher Warner Books
ISBN 0446610658Title Vincalis the Agitator
Author(s) Holly Lisle
Publisher Warner Books
ISBN 0446610631Title Memory of Fire
Author(s) Holly Lisle
Publisher HarperCollins
ISBN 038081837XTitle The Wreck of Heaven
Author(s) Holly Lisle
Publisher HarperCollins
ISBN 0380818388Title Talyn
Author(s) Holly Lisle
Publisher Tor/Forge
ISBN 0765309939
