Google Book Search

[addy]

This is the first time I've heard of this, and it's blowing my mind.

http://io9.com/5501426/5-ways-the-google...of-reading

If this is the future of books, I'm not quite sure I'm liking it.

[billy]

hopefully it will be slung out. if it goes through google will basically be stealing the copyright of every book ever written.

why o why they can't just lessen the the copyright time of a book to ten years after it was written is beyond me. if they did that the mickey mouse copy right would cease and we wouldn't need the google thief to digitize any libraries. i am personally against it.

[addy]

why o why they can't just lessen the the copyright time of a book to ten years after it was written is beyond me.

Big intellectual property conglomerates are fighting it tooth and nail, that's why. Considering that they were able to extend their copyright claims for this long, they probably plan to do it ad infinitum. They've got the money, so they have a stranglehold.

I resent what google's doing in the guise of "sharing media", when in fact they're aiming to monopolize it (authors being cornered to sign with them? Freedom to alter and edit books? And they want people to use this as a RESOURCE for literature?). They're just as bad.

[srijantje]

well,that's exactly what big corporations are all about,monopolizing things,nothing new here

[billy]

well,that's exactly what big corporations are all about,monopolizing things,nothing new here

i agree, but monopolizing when and what we can read is a bit strong.
in effect what it does is take away the copyright from the copyright holder. what i'm saying is this. if they can digitize a book then anyone should be able to digitize a book within the same time frame of 11 years after publication. (i think) i think 11 years is a good length for someone to hold a copyright, after that we (someone) could digitize it and make it free for people to read or download on the net.

what google are aiming for is to digitize it and show just a small excerpt in the hope of someone paying for the download or the hard copy. something i could never agree to.

by all means after the 11 years let anyone who wants to sell a hard copy do so even a soft copy but the soft copy has to also be available free somewhere else. which makes the soft copy sale unviable.

so i say yes to an 11 year copyright and a definite no to google acquiring everyone's copyright including the books already out of copyright.

[srijantje]

you're absolutely right,Bill,if google can do it,everybody should be alowed to do it

[billy]

if we were it would be a giant step to real file sharing. and a greast step away from what i think is are silly copyright laws concerning the written word.

[srijantje]

well,it only sounds logical to me

[mrmod]

But do we even have a say in this matter? Google is a business. A powerful one at that, also. So I would not count on them caring and would probably bet on them just going ahead on the deal ...

[billy]

sadly we only have a voice outside the court.
some are opposing it and hopefully will stifle
googles plans. we could all boycott google but i can't see that happening.

at present i'm trying to find books or poetry by certain authors.
i can find lots by google which they digitized but the quality is rubbish.
if you wan't a good copy you'll have to buy it off them. it's disgusting.

[addy]

I think it would be the heigh of irresponsibility for the US courts to decide in Google's favor on this matter. There are lots of things about copyright law that need to be rehammered, but this is the wrong way to go about it. What I'm surprised with is the lack of buzz regarding this issue. Shouldn't people be picking this story up? Isn't this a big deal?

[billy]

for me it's a big deal.

at present they're going through the college libraries and digitizing all their old books. a lot of the digitizing is in poor resolution. the good resolution (i think) have to be paid for if you want to read them.

i still think if they can do it everyone should be able to do it and copyright for a book comes down to 11 years for everyone, not just google. if that happened i'd be very happy.

[addy]

Resurrecting this thread... a relevant news item has cropped up

Judge Makes Ultimatum for Google Books Deal

Thank goodness that judge has enough sense to overturn that settlement option. Let's see how this plays out now

[billy]

will the google library be free to use ?

[addy]

No, from what I understand. There will be a fee for access (though a few pages of preview are free, which i believe was the sticking point of dispute in the court case).

[billy]

then it shouldn't be allowed.