Opportunistic? I won't be so cynical as to assume that Yahoo! is slapping Google in the face. But the timing cannot be ignored. Just as Google is getting hammered with controversy and one high-profile lawsuit over Google Print for Libraries, Yahoo! steps to the plate with a notably similar project with one cricial difference. Yahoo!'s Open Content Alliance (joined by the Internet Archive, Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, and two universities) is an opt-in program for publishers, contrasting with Google's opt-out system. Seems so easy, now that somebody is doing it … opt in, not opt out. While Google's bullying tactic might work on the basis of Fair Use, it will cost the company an undetermined price in legal fees and public good will. Google says "Don't be evil," then infuriates publishers by appropriating their content. Yahoo! doesn't engage in absurd public moralizing, and invites publishers to contribute content. Who would you rather do business with?

Speaking of choice, the nascent market for digital access to printed literature is hereby fractioned. Yahoo!'s system lives up to its name, though, and will remain open to participation by any other provider, including Google. We can only hope that, unlike the digital music field with its conflicting file formats, Google and Yahoo! will not value their competition above the convenience of their users.

At any rate, the OCA is getting rolling in the public domain and by seeking out Creative Commons works. The plan is to have databased content by the end of the year. From the Yahoo! search blog: "The rights issues come in many flavors, but our guiding principle is to offer high-resolution, downloadable, reusable files of the public domain. When we are dealing with in-copyright materials, the Internet Archive has been leveraging the creative commons licenses to great effect. In-copyright issues remain, but at least we can get substantial work going on the public domain."