adxgetmedia Mediabistro’s GalleyCat has a post about ABBYY FineReader Express, an OCR program that can even use cell phone cameras (though for best results, a 5 megapixel version is recommended, which would seem to limit it to the iPhone 4’s camera).

The post mentions it in the context of scanning “orphan works” such as the “hundreds of pages from 1930s novels, periodicals, and self-published materials that couldn’t leave the New York Public Library” that GalleyCat editor Jason Boog read through during a project. As a demonstration, it includes a photograph of a page from such a work, a screenshot of the OCR tool in action, and the completed OCR’d text of the page.

The OCR tool looks interesting, and means that the iPhone 4 could become a quite useful research tool for its users—a photocopier in a pocket. But I find myself a little puzzled by why GalleyCat chooses to call out orphan works specifically as a good use for the technology.

Bear in mind that orphan works are still under copyright; it’s just that nobody knows who currently owns the copyright. Legally, scanning orphan works in this way (not to mention posting a sample publicly, though a case could be made for fair use in that respect) is a little iffy—just a small-scale version of the practice that got Google Books in hot water with the Authors Guild. There’s always a chance a copyright owner might turn up after all.

Of course, as long as the scans are for one’s personal use, it probably won’t matter much in the long run—if they’re not being posted on the Internet, the copyright owners will probably not find out. Still, it’s a little odd to see GalleyCat promoting what is technically a copyright violation.

1 COMMENT

  1. Thanks Chris, you make an excellent point.

    I was trying to illustrate the personal research usefulness of the tool (I spend way too much time photocopying at the NYPL), but that same function can easily be misused by people selling pirated versions of orphaned works. I did not address that in my article, and I should have at least included a disclaimer to that effect–I would never encourage anyone to create and distribute pirated copies.

    Thanks for sharing the link; it’s always great to have Teleread readers visit.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.