Comments on: Could Google Book Search Be an All-Powerful, Privacy-Killing Monopoly?

By: Sumur

Sumur — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:00:26 +0000

Finding old books that easy in Google is the best thing I found lately on the net. I dreamed since long ago to have Raffles’s History of Java without ever having resource to realize it. Suddenly they’re there, free for the picking. As an academic I don’t care much for selling-rights (if you want to be rich, go somewhere else!) , information wants to be free.
Oh, yes, Google could use a couple of quality control guys to ensure that those (behind the) scanners do everything right.

By: Mats H

Mats H — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:00:04 +0000

I’m surprised Google is proposing a library fee. It’s not the Google I appreciate — simple, free, discreet. Except that, the only threat I can see here is directed towards copyright-holding dinosaurs. I wont miss them when they gone.

By: paula

paula — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:49:10 +0000

I think goggle ought to be laude for what it is doing. The only protest, if it ever comes, will be from vested interests who (still) feel that these books are only a way to earn money. Maybe by digitizing these books, Google will create a renewed interest in them.

By: John Burton

John Burton — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:09:27 +0000

Making books (info) available to the masses is the greatest thing that could possibly be. Imagine a mind of great genius some place in the world, too poor to buy books or attend a university, can sit in the privacy of his home and let the knowledge of the world into his brain. Who knows what the results might be? Maybe people with religious violence notions will see the evil of suicide bombers and other evil things encouraged out of ignorance and superstition. Sooner or later this will come about and the sooner the better. Maybe fewer people would be exploited in the name of religion and pursue more purposeful goals in life. All information should be made available, free, to everyone except information that might be harmful to humanity such as toxins, nuclear bombs and hate info. But now that would be censorship.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:08:32 +0000

Except that it’s DIGITAL, and you can COPY it EASY without DESTROYING the ORIGINAL.

You know, potentially like Project Gutenberg. What I want to know, though, is why libraries are participating by scanning copies of books without keeping a copy. I mean, just stick them on tape drive or something.

But, honestly, I applaud Google for trying to stop the slaughter of trees by digitizing works (or in the case of out-of-print books, for bringing otherwise unreachable books to the masses.)

This is a great thing, unless you have money vested in controlling the access of information. Remember, Goog originally wanted to give everyone free access to the entire contents of these books (because knowledge is power), and were fought down in court. (because money is still more powerful than knowledge to people that have more money than knowledge… which, unfortunately in America is almost everyone, even those bankrupt and in massive debt)

We’re all worried so much about what Google is looking at of our web surfing habits. Then we go on Facebook, give them our REAL information, and broadcast our every move to the world. No one (that uses) Facebook is all that concerned about this, or they wouldn’t be using Facebook in the first place.

In fact, a lot of (criminals/runaways/etc) get caught because they post on Facebook, giving away their location (oh, yeah, Facebook encodes the location you make every update from). No, I’m not making that up, go read their TOS and policies. They handle 20-30 requests a day from law enforcement.

But remember, nothing to be afraid of if you haven’t done anything wrong!

Anyways, sorry EFF but the surveillance society was put in place by society and not the government or corporations while you weren’t looking, but by our own desire to utilize technology. Even twitter, who doesn’t care who you really are, allows you to put in your real name and you can have your phone update your profile with a current GPS location when you tweet.

By: patrick

patrick — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:49:10 +0000

Are they gonna tell us what’s relevant too?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:32:57 +0000

the Fiction Circus have been reporting on this for a while now:

http://fictioncircus.com/news.php?id=363&mode=one

including a recent (audio) interview with law professor James Grimmelmann who is responsible for NY Law School’s amicus breif:

http://www.fictioncircus.com/news.php?id=356&mode=one