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The Point of Google Print
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.'"
I blame the pirates
The only way this comment has something to do with the story is it's copyright related. I guess it could be interesting.
Anyways, I run a karaoke show a few nights a week. For those that aren't familiar with karaoke, most of it is produced in a format called CDG. It's exactly the same as a regular audio CD, but the subcode section that is normally set aside for seeking and disk position has a few extra bits crammed onto it for the graphic display.
Fair use is there for audio CD's. We're allowed to copy them for backup or playback on an ipod. Because karaoke CDG's contain the lyrical video element, they are not considered purely an "Audio" CD.
http://www.ipjustice.org/karaokefairuse.shtml There is an article on IP justice that theorizes copying your own legitimate karaoke CDG's is legal. On the other end of the spectrum there is KAPA http://www.karaokeantipiracyagency.com/ who is trying to outlaw folks from copying their CDG's to their hard drives.
The place I work at, it was sort of a needed evil. Our DKK set of karaoke CDG's was over 10 years old, and DKK no longer produces CDG's. There was no way for us to get a replacement set at all. Through 10 years of use, the CDG's were damn near unusable, prompting us to spend a week using a disk doctor to polish up and recover what we could, and transfer them to the computer in mp3+g format.
I've been doing this since 2001, before that I was a sysadmin for 10 years or so. I read slash religiously so I'm pretty well informed from the multitude of YRO articles on copyright, as well as software licesning issues. I maintain a strict no piracy policy at the club because I know what could happen if we were found to be pirating.
I don't really care about googles copyright issues. As much as we all love google, personally I find what they're doing to be in the gray area of copyright. My issue with karaoke CDG's is something personal, and I hope other slashdotters can give me some advice or insight into anything that can be done so there is a clear definition in law that personal backup of ones CDG's is fair use, and covered under fair use laws.
--toqer