Hedging the commons: google books, libraries, and open access to knowledge

This dissertation analyzes the legal, social, technological, and cultural environment that gave rise to Google's library partnership program in order to propose an institutional corrective to Google's project to digitize cultural heritage. Interview research done with those actively involved with Google's project revealed the need for a history of the present. The class action settlement proposed sweeping changes to copyright warranting a quick response by a community of scholars seeking to advance a balanced vision of Anglo-American copyright, one where the public benefit to use and appropriate works is weighted alongside private incentives to create. The process created the conditions for institutional renewal in the public sphere through the creation of a Digital Public Library of America. By combining archival, critical legal, and interview research methods, this dissertation provides a narrative that is both analytical and deeply contextual. Google's digitization partnership in France is contrasted with its library partners program in the United States, examining Google's work in light of competing visions of intellectual property within a trans-Atlantic context.