Google Has an Ambitious Competitor
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Google is not the only organization wanting to digitize books. The European Union (EU) has embarked on a similar project:
“The EU launches Thursday its Europeana digital library, an online digest of Europe’s cultural heritage that aims to draw together millions of books and other items.”
link: Massive EU online library looks to compete with Google
Europeana begins this vast undertaking with modest resources. There will be fourteen staff members and an annual funding of 3.15 million dollars. If the legal hurdles encountered by Google have set a precedent, then Europeana will be expending a good portion of that funding on legal assistance. There will be copyright agreements to negotiate and the subtleties of each nation’s laws. It has been a daunting task for Google, with far more financial clout. For now, Google has government competition.
Catherine Forsythe
One Comment
Shtanto
November 20th, 2008
at 12:54pm
Interesting story. Would it not be better to organise the Internet a bit beforehand though?
What’s the difference in funding between the two sides?