Copyright

Google argues its book database doesn’t violate copyright laws.
The company suggests it only shows short passages and
accompanies the text with ads showcasing where the full books
can be purchased. Of course, the ads are Google Adwords from
which the company makes a tidy profit.

On Tuesday, the search goliath rolled out stand-alone book
search services in 14 countries. The same day, the Text and
Academic Authors Association (TAA) became the latest publishers’
organization to call Google’s opt-out strategy backwards.

Authors, Publishers and publishing associations are not happy.
While Google only publishes the full text of books in the public
domain, it is still copying entire books for which it has no
permission. Google claims it can do this because the books are
being scanned from versions owned by public libraries. Fearing
an avalanche of lawsuits, Google backed off.

In August, Google stopped scanning copyrighted books in public
library collections. At the same time, it gave publishers the
right to submit lists of books the publishers didn’t want
scanned. As you can image, publishers still aren’t happy.

The Arrogance of Google

Once viewed as the underdog to giants such as Microsoft, Google
continues to act like the local school bully. In this case, the
company has taken such an arrogant approach that lawsuits are
inevitable. Google is going to take a beating in the lawsuits
and here is why.

Consider the neighborhood you live in. What if a local crime
syndicate informed every household it was going to steal
everything in each household. Undoubtedly, there would be calls
of outrage. In response, what if the crime syndicate then
suggested you could send a list of items in your house that you
didn’t want stolen? This is exactly what Google is doing.
Google’s decision to scan every book in the world is idealistic,
but laughably simple minded. At a time when the recording
industry is suing teenagers for file swapping, one would think
Google would get a clue.