A few days ago, Barbara and I discovered the Google Book Search Partner Program, and reading things over we wondered how some of the books we’ve scanned which are in the Public Domain might be submitted and shared.

So I wrote to them:

We digitize and redistribute public domain books only, and are wondering whether it’s possible to submit them to Google Book Search via the Partner Program. The demo/intro screencast suggested that all books need an ISBN or statement of rights.

How would you deal with works that are (provably) in the Public Domain? Is there a way to submit them, without first attaching a useless ISBN to the scans?

And Greg from Google just replied:

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your interest in the Google Books Partner Program. While an ISBN is not required for participation in Google Book Search, please note that participants may only submit copyrighted titles to Google Book Search for which they hold rights. We are unable to accept public domain books through our Partner Program.

If you have any further questions at this time, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Sincerely,

Greg
The Google Book Search Team

So by this argument, should we do what Plain Label Books appear to have done, which is slap a faux copyright notice onto definitively Public Domain (and crappy) texts from Project Gutenberg? Or should we perhaps do what Kessinger Publishing does, which is scan and republish physical books in the Public Domain, and claim a spurious copyright on that?

Which kind of erosion of the public domain would you like me to try first, Google? Shall I show “snippets” of Public Domain Books, like Kessinger, and make people pay ridiculously inflated prices for crap POD copies of things that would be better downloaded for free [from you, I'd argue]? Or should I go through the motions of Greg’s interpretation of your Terms of Service and lie about my rights so that I can slot something into your ill-fitting business logic?

Or maybe, perhaps, because these books are in the Public Domain, you might get a clue about what that actually means, and acknowledge that I, and you, and everybody has the rights to those works.

That’s what “Public Domain” means. We have the right.

Put your manager on the line, Greg.