[fjtorres]

More interesting to me--something Konrath only alluded to indirectly--is the AG's kneejerk opposition to Fair Use in all its forms, which is at the root of the Google books fight.

Fair Use is, of course, a big sticking point with the multinational-controlled BPHs, mostly because wide-ranging fair use is primarily a US right and their world view doesn't fit with that.

Plenty more legal fights to come over fair use online, with Google and others.

A lot of it stemming from the different roots of copyright across the two sides of the pond:

I recently ran into a comment pointing out, correctly, that in the US copyright is granted by the Contitution to serve the public interest whereas european (and particularly french) laws set up copyright to protect the rights holder. Much like debates over antitrust, which in the US is used to protect consumers and elsewhere it is used to protect competitors, the differences in viewpoints between the multinational execs and the local legal framework is leading to a lot of friction.

Friction that will continue indefinitely so long as the old world multinationals fail to understand what it takes to operate successfully and legally in the new world of digital publishing.