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The Point of Google Print

Posted by Zonk on from the lookie-loos dept.

vinohradska writes "Eric Schmidt has written a good article called the The point of Google Print. It clearly lays out the argument against the current lawsuit: 'Even those critics who understand that copyright law is not absolute argue that making a full copy of a given work, even just to index it, can never constitute fair use. If this were so, you wouldn't be able to record a TV show to watch it later or use a search engine that indexes billions of Web pages.'"

4 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Publisher's Have a Bug Up Their Ass by Eustace+Tilley · · Score: 4, Informative
    You are mistaken. From Google Print's FAQ:
    #I'm already logged in. Why are you telling me the page is unavailable?

    As part of our efforts to protect a book's copyright, a set of pages in every in-copyright book will be unavailable to all users.

    # I really need to see more of this book. What can I do?

    Google Print helps you discover books, not read them online. To read the whole book, we encourage you to use the "Buy this book" link to purchase it online or the "Find this in a library" link to look for a local library that has it.
  2. Re:Publisher's Have a Bug Up Their Ass by ornil · · Score: 5, Informative

    Trust me, knowing that a book exists is already very helpful, even if you can't obtain it immediately. If a book is in print, then you can buy it. If it's in the public domain you can access it immediately. If it is out of print, but not in the public domain, then you may still be able to buy it used. Even if you can't, your local public library can obtain just about any book that's been published for you. If it is something extremely rare, but you really need it, then it is still useful, because you can fly over, or contact the library by phone and explain your circumstances, or find someone with access to the library who can obtain the necessary information.

    If you don't know whether the books exists, you can do neither of those.

  3. Re:Orphaned works by Peyna · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.copyright.gov/records/

    --
    What?
  4. Re:Publisher's Have a Bug Up Their Ass by LMariachi · · Score: 4, Informative
    even webpage search engines are opt-in. Your website doesn't get indexed unless you submit it...

    What on earth are you talking about? Any general search engine worth using is opt-out via robots.txt. Do you really think every page indexed by Google was actively submitted to them?

    The real reason that publishers have to pursue this...is that copyright can be reneged if you are not seen to be defending your rights.

    With the amount of IP-related discussion on Slashdot, it's amazing how often this misinformation is still expressed. It's only trademarks that may be forfeited for lack of defense. Not copyrights, not patents -- trademarks.

    So your whole post boils down to "it's debatable." A trenchant analysis indeed.