Google, Library Scanning, and Copyright

There’s a nice (and brief) roundup of issues concerning Google’s massive library book scanning project at Ars Technica this morning. I’d like to comment on it more fully, but I don’t have the time or patience to read through all the relevant copyright law. My illustrious employer is also a member of this project, so I expect to be hearing a lot about this topic in the coming years.

The gist of the problem appears to be that copyright pertaining to electronic media has not been fully hashed out in the courts, so several opinions can be regarded as having validity. The idea of Google, a powerful media corporation, having control over copies of many millions of pages of copyrighted content is mind-boggling. What do they say they intend to do with them? Their use could be either lawful, unlawful, or exist in a legal limbo.

Several amusing remarks are made in the back-and-forth comments between Paul Courant and Siva Vaidhyanathan about the general laziness of modern students, to the effect that they won’t bother to physically seek out actual books, but prefer electronic versions…a generalization, but one with some truth to it. It’s just the way they was raised, I guess.

J.K. Rowling: Rich Idiot

From AP (it’s Fair Use!):

“NEW YORK – Author J.K. Rowling and the maker of the “Harry Potter” films are suing a small publisher in Michigan over its plans to release a book version of a popular Web site dedicated to the boy wizard.”

I read these fine words sitting underneath one of the largest library collections on the planet: 7 floors practically groaning underneath exactly the sort of book that Rowling is suing to prevent. There’s probably an entire floor devoted to books about other authors’ books. Where is her precedent for this suit? Of course, precedent doesn’t matter when you’re rich: pay a law firm, and it will happily sue the sky for being blue.

I fondly remember a time before any bonehead who could afford a pack of lawyers (a trouble of lawyers? a suit of lawyers? a bill of lawyers?) decided copyright was a club to beat the heads of those who dared to trespass on their financial turf. I blame the RIAA, of course.

Perhaps there is a certain madness that comes upon the newly rich, which makes them honestly believe that their desires rate above those of others. All I know is that if I were Rowling, I’d never even want to hear the name ‘Harry Potter’ again. She beat that particular horse to death. My advice to her as a reader: fire your lawyers, and hire a decent editor for your next book.