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Google's Struggle To Reach Authors — of Every Book Ever Written

Posted by timothy on from the paper-of-record dept.

eldavojohn writes "There's no lack of news surrounding the settlement of Google's controversial move to digitize books — but how do you even start this endeavor? A New York Times story reveals the obstacles they face just to get the word out that they want to settle with publishers and authors everywhere. They turned to a world-wide ad campaign to start the $125 million settlement process and they're spending $7 million to $8 million in paper print ads and telephone hot-lines (handling 80+ languages) to reach as many people as possible. From the article: 'We looked at how many books were published in various areas and we knew from the plaintiffs and Google that 30 percent were published in the US, 30 percent in industrialized countries. The rest of the world is the rest.' That's quite the herculean task! Hopefully Google's efforts in digitizing books will breathe new life and revenue into authors and publishers the world over."

12 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. retarded by Em+Emalb · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The whole process is retarded.

    Slowdown Cowboy! You type faster than two office drones bumping uglies on a keyboard!

    (Seriously, fix this. There's no need for it.)

    --
    Sent from your iPad.
    1. Re:retarded by clone53421 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      It didn't slow you down much, apparently. You still managed to get first post.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    2. Re:retarded by Em+Emalb · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Heh, yeah, guess I did. Still, having to click submit three different times or wait a certain amount of times shows a ham-fisted approach to handling flooding.

      There are other ways to do it, but I guess slashdot doesn't care.

      That's the huge reason there's several year gaps between posting for me, personally.

      --
      Sent from your iPad.
    3. Re:retarded by retchdog · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Yeah, we all miss you terribly. I hope the system gets fixed soon...

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    4. Re:retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      They don't give a shit. Slashdot used to be groundbreaking, now they don't even bother fixing easy things.

    5. Re:retarded by Idiomatick · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Its only supposed to delay posts by 30seconds not a few years. /. must be out to get you.

    6. Re:retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      You must be new here.

    7. Re:retarded by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      No, you're right. Slashdot doesn't care. Because its supposed to work that way. No velvet gloves here. No sir -e. Ham fists not only solve problems, but can be turned into delicious sandwiches. If you want something done right the first time, you do it right the first time with hands of pork.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    8. Re:retarded by genner · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      No, you're right. Slashdot doesn't care. Because its supposed to work that way. No velvet gloves here. No sir -e. Ham fists not only solve problems, but can be turned into delicious sandwiches. If you want something done right the first time, you do it right the first time with hands of pork.

      Mmmmm... hands of pork.

    9. Re:retarded by Em+Emalb · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      good one! yep, you got me good.

      --
      Sent from your iPad.
    10. Re:retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Harold P. Warren would like a word with you.

    11. Re:retarded by clone53421 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I've found that, in IE, it seems to make you wait AGES if you've posted a few times in the near past. In Firefox, the filter doesn't seem to be nearly as strict.

      I have no idea why. All I know is that I should never, ever see the message "It's been 2 hours 18 minutes since you last posted" instead of "Comment Submitted."

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.