Google Print

[timwhit]

I just read this (http://slate.msn.com/id/2128094/?nav=tap3) article about Google Print.

Anyone have any thoughts about why authors are being so incredibly stupid about this amazing new idea?

[Mercutio]

It's very hard to make money as a writer, especially if you write for a living. Google Print is, in effect disassociating or anonymizing authorship from the written word (do you look at the copyright on anything else you get off the web?). In that kind of environment, it's hard to maintain control over your work, which is literally the only thing of value that a writer has.

Someone who writes for the fun of it only wants their work to be seen. Someone who writes for a living wants to pay the rent next month, and that's not happening unless people buy what it is they are selling... and they might not buy it if they can get it for free off the web.

[timwhit]

Well you are not referring to Google Print. Try it out first before replying: http://print.google.com/

You cannot get full text books from Google Print. What you get is a way to search the world's collection of books. Have you ever tried to find an obscure book in a university library system? It is a pain in the ass. The idea behind Google Print is just to be able to search for books, not be able to read them online.

[jtr1962]

It wouldn't be a bad thing if most books were available free online, especially ones where the author is long dead. We heard the same arguments for music. I don't mind honoring copyrights if the original author benefits, and if there is some sort of time limit after which the work goes into public domain. However, the idea of some company holding a copyright forever, and giving the original author what amounts to peanuts, just rubs me the wrong way.

If you're a budding author, the web can give you a lot more exposure than waiting for a publisher. Maybe something where someone can pay you a few dollars to access your work in full might be a good idea as it cuts out the middleman (i.e. publisher). Who reads print books any more nowadays anyhow? Judging by all the cloeouts I see for books everywhere I'd say almost nobody except students and teachers. Last time I actually picked up a work of fiction was in literature class in college. Nowadays my recreational reading consists of data sheets, technical manuals, and free trade periodicals. I'm guessing most of the public acts similarly. Not a knock on the printed word, but with easy access to the Internet and computers it seems we're in the middle of a shift similar to the shift from verbal passing on of literature to the printed word several hundred years ago.

[Mercutio]

Well you are not referring to Google Print. Try it out first before replying: http://print.google.com/


Sure I am. You search. You find relevant references. Ta-Da! You have taken something - arguably something covered by fair use - that ordinarily would've required a physical copy of a book and therefore a sale of that book.

[timwhit]

You can get the same information from Amazon for any book that is in print. How is this any different?

[Mercutio]

The book industry is pretty down on Amazon for that idea, too, especially in the EU.

[Pradeep]

What concerns me is the opt-out part of the whole thing. It's like someone telling the RIAA, "I'm going to rip all my friends CDs, unless you send me a list of all the ones I cannot specifically copy."

[sechs]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[timwhit]

What concerns me is the opt-out part of the whole thing. It's like someone telling the RIAA, "I'm going to rip all my friends CDs, unless you send me a list of all the ones I cannot specifically copy."

It is completely different than that. It would be like showing the cover of the CD and then having a link to where you could buy it.

Google print only provides a couple pages of a book, for most books this is the TOC, the cover, and the copyright page. OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH I am pirating a book by reading the copyright page.

Show me one book on Google Print where you can get any meaningful content for free. JUST ONE.

[Pradeep]

Show me one book on Google Print where you can get any meaningful content for free. JUST ONE.

OK. Go to Google Print. Search for "storage". Storage Area Networks is the third one down. Select it. Then, below the search box, click on "More results from this book". Login with a gmail account. The whole enchilada is available, all 324 pages of it.

This seems to be the case for any book I select.

[Tannin]

That article is a classic example of what is really, really bad in journalism. It masquerades as an evenhanded tell-it-like-it-is news story, and it's as biased towards one side of the argument as it's possible to be. Start with the headline, then move onto the absurd map makers and landowners analogy.

How much did Google pay this creep?

[timwhit]

That article is a classic example of what is really, really bad in journalism. It masquerades as an evenhanded tell-it-like-it-is news story, and it's as biased towards one side of the argument as it's possible to be. Start with the headline, then move onto the absurd map makers and landowners analogy.

How much did Google pay this creep?

Well considering that it is on Slate. That writer essentially works for Microsoft.

[timwhit]

Show me one book on Google Print where you can get any meaningful content for free. JUST ONE.

OK. Go to Google Print. Search for "storage". Storage Area Networks is the third one down. Select it. Then, below the search box, click on "More results from this book". Login with a gmail account. The whole enchilada is available, all 324 pages of it.

This seems to be the case for any book I select.

Hmm. That is the first book that I have seen on there where you could get most of the content. A couple of the pages were blanked out. I think that is more the exception than the rule.

[Bozo]

What's the difference than going to the brick and mortor library, and either reading it there or taking it home? The authors are not getting paid for everyone that reads the book.
And with today's technology, a lot of homes have the capability of scanning and printing the book.

Bozo :mrgrn: