ment, data mining, social computing, robotics, and bioengineering.

I admit I find the second item largely irrelevant. What is the optimal percentage in CS of men, women, and racial/ethnic groups? Is it a problem to be overrepresented in certain countries by men, whites, Indian, or Chinese CS professionals? Why not inspire a passion for the profession among all people, and let whoever is interested join the ranks? Anything else, like somehow encouraging or targeting certain groups while downplay-ing others, is racial, ethnic, or gender discrimination.

Ron Pyke, bellevue, WA

Who speaks for Books?

By objecting to the proposed Google book-search settlement without offering alternatives, Pamela Samuelson in “The Dead Souls of the Google Book Search Settlement” (July 2009) seemed to be allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good, addressing policy issues beyond the immediate legal issues in the lawsuit. Each of her concerns could, however, be ameliorated without rejecting the basic framework.

Among the issues before the court is whether the Authors Guild is an appropriate representative of the plaintiff class. If the court decides the Authors Guild is an inappropriate class representative, the details of the settlement are irrelevant. However, this would also mean that the litigation will be prolonged and the ultimate results uncertain. In the meantime, everyone, including many scholars, will be without the benefit of Google Book Search. It may thus be prudent to allow the Authors Guild to represent a class, regardless of its limited and perhaps specialized membership, and focus on the merits of the settlement.

Orphan works by definition have no rights holders to speak for them. Presumably, some rights holders would like to have their works made freely available, while others would require compensation for and/or limits to access, and still others would refuse any access at all. A judicious approach might be to exclude orphan works from the settlement. Ideally, the U.S. Congress would establish a policy toward orphan works that would reflect policy choices beyond

the interests of the parties to a lawsuit.

That two de facto monopolies would be created by a settlement is a concern but can be addressed while still maintaining the basic settlement. First, the Registry would be the only general source of rights to digitize non-orphan, non-public domain books published before January 2009, but there is the possibility that another rights group could be organized in competition with the Registry, as BMI was founded to compete with ASCAP in music performing rights. Second, unless others are likely to receive terms comparable to Google’s under the settlement, they could hesitate to seek a license from the Registry and undertake a comparable project without a license. As a result, Google may be the only licensee with rights to scan the non-orphan, non-public domain books. But even if that happens, others could develop business models analogous to those of Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw.

Google will also have the authority to develop pricing algorithms for the books. For that to happen, the court can clarify that any approval of the settlement would not preclude future antitrust review, and Google would then be bound by the law, just like any other company.

As Samuelson wrote, the settlement would achieve a substantial restructuring of the landscape of access to books. While there may be understandable concern about such far-reaching results from the settlement of a single lawsuit, it alone is insufficient to require the parties to continue litigating. By resolving this case with relatively modest adjustments, we would have the substantial benefit of greater access than ever to books.

Yee Wah chin, new York

author’s Response:

Orphan-works legislation would be desirable and, in my judgment, more likely if the settlement is not approved than if it is.

The idea of excluding orphan works from the settlement is interesting, but one that would cause the settlement agreement to fall apart, since getting a license to orphan works is one of Google’s main objectives in the class-action settlement. The Authors Guild and AAP also care about this because their authors and publishers will

benefit if Google pays BRR royalties for its exploitations of the orphans that, under the settlement agreement, are to be paid out to registered publishers and authors, after BRR’s costs are deducted.

I am familiar with the “perfect is the enemy of the good” argument and think it has some relevance here. But part of what concerns me is what will happen in 10 years, 20 years, and beyond and that monopolies tend to engage in exclusionary conduct and excessive pricing. That is a reason to be very careful about approval of this settlement.

Pamela samuelson, berkeley, CA

meeting maurice

I was fortunate to have Professor Maurice Wilkes (interviewed by David P. Anderson, Sept. 2009) as my academic advisor 1953–1954 when I programmed for the EDSAC while earning a post-graduate diploma in “ Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing” that included writing a thesis on programming for the EDSAC. To the best of my knowledge, that was the first year a post-graduate computer science degree was ever awarded.

I have since had the pleasure of meeting Maurice many times, during both his association with Digital Equipment Corporation in Maynard, MA, in the 1980s and more recently in Cambridge, U.K., where I visited him around the time of his 95th birthday. Despite his advanced age, he drove me from his office to his home to have tea with him and his wife Nina, and later from his home to the station to catch a train back to London.

I am 20 years younger than Maurice but hope I will match his sprightliness when I reach his age.

Peter Wegner, Providence, ri

 

The interview with Maurice Wilkes by David P. Anderson (Sept. 2009) was of great interest, in spite of the unkind remarks regarding Alan Turing. If not for a few greats of World War II like Turing and Robert Watson-Watt [ra-dar pioneer], the interview would have been carried out in German.

George t. Jacobi, milwaukee, Wi

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