Thursday, September 24, 2009

Google Books, What's Next Google Movies?

For any authors not following what Google has quietly been doing to books from all over the world, you had better check. Despite the fact that you wrote a book, got it published, and hold a copyright on it, Google may have copied it in its entirety into their archives.
This presents a problem on many levels. First of all, it was illegal. At this point, that is moot, as Google has settled this little problem to the tune of 125 million dollars. Seems like a lot, right? Wrong. For a small fraction of their company's worth, Google has established for itself a position where it can both sell and distribute works to which is has no claim. Google, the internet good-guy, has finally followed the tracks of every business minded company ever and analyzed a situation to see which course of action would be the most profitable. And they followed through. Books that belonged to authors are suddenly in the posession of Google. It was an act first and ask questions later scanario.

Imagine if they had done something similar with Movies or Music. Google Music or Google Movies would be shut down before the names even left Google's marketing room. The music and movie lobbies (along with the RIAA and the MPAA) already target individuals who do the same thing Google has just done with books, although they sue for obscenely high damage amounts. Google Books, on the other hand, looks to get away with a deal for pennies on the dollar.
The issue now is whether Congress will allow this farce of a deal to go through.

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