Oh, our first fight! I can't wait for the make-up sex.
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Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
therefore, even if copyright was infringed to some degree...
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The degree here was the highest ever by anyone in history. (Cue the Kip soundbite from Napolean Dynamite. "Like anyone could know that...") It was an intentional, systematic, corporate raiding of entire libraries. It was a private company deciding to ignore copyright for their own profit.
We may not like certain laws, laws may be wrong, but to ignore and redefine things... I'll stop before this becomes a conversation about the Bush Administration.
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Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
also, many books which are still in copyright are also out of print and incredibly hard (or impossible) to find. this is one of the very dangerous side-effects of the current copyright law. with this in mind, google is actually safeguarding a significant portion of our collective culture for posterity, and making it far more accessible than publishers have / could.
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I agree, but Google was not being altruistic here. They saw an opportunity to grab content they thought nobody was watching. Like a lady's purse on the back of a chair, so to speak. Out of Print, Out of Mind. And they didn't do so to "safeguard" it. They are a for-profit company. Publishers and OOP works are like a company with particular goods locked away in a warehouse. Because they keep the goods out of circulation does not give another company the right to break into the warehouse and use those goods for their own profit, no matter how much you and I want the goods.
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Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
i do grant you that some aspects of google's actions are less justifiable, for example the original opt-out (rather than opt-in) approach for books which are still in print and still in copyright, but nonetheless *all* the parties involved (including the publishers and the authors, that is to say the plaignants in the case) recognize that the true winners in this case are the readers..
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It was a land grab. They got caught, were sued, and forced to behave. In this instance. Suits about YouTube content and other media grabs are still in the works.
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Originally Posted by Studio717
this settlement is, through Google...
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Again, not "through Google", but through a legal settlement. Google was perfectly content to ignore the law and do whatever they wanted, until this settlement.