The new Google Scholar and Google Print can be useful tools when it comes to academic research, but unfortunately, this often comes at the cost of infringing of publishers’ copyrights.

In its current form, Google Scholar offers web surfers the chance to read segments of books online at no cost, and Google keeps track of the number of pages read by having readers sign in using their Gmail password. Once someone has read a certain number of pages, the online program prevents the reader from accessing anymore, and offers the reader the chance to purchase the book online.

But publishers are rightfully worried that readers will simply use another Gmail account password to access more pages, and that other loopholes are easily discoverable.

Google has said that its goal it to work with publishers, not against them, and that if a publisher wishes to take a book off of the Google Scholar database to avoid copyright infringement, the publisher has every right to do so. But it should be Google’s responsibility to ask the publisher first, and then publish a book online if the publisher agrees to the conditions.

The war on file sharing put on by the Recording Industry Association of America has become all too common a problem, and publishers have every right to be concerned that an online book database could turn out similarly.

Like the RIAA has been known for, the American Association of Publishers has filed two rounds of lawsuits against Google charging them with copyright infringement, according to the AAP. The Google Library Project has no plans to discontinue scanning and posting books online even though lawsuits have been filed against them, according to a company press release.

Google should work in cooperation with university libraries to ensure that online resources are available to students, but only with the consent of publishers and authors. Such resources as Lexis-Nexis Academic and several other paid-for services common in most libraries face no copyright infringement violations because universities compensate these companies for their services.

Though Google intends that its new program be available to the whole of the online community, it can avoid the lawsuits it is now facing from the AAP if it simply respects their copyright, and acts according to the Digital-Millennium Copyright Act.

Twenty-first-century students hardly need to go beyond the internet in finding valuable resources, and Google Scholar has the potential to be a greatly beneficial tool. Google should realize, however, that with great power also comes great responsibility.