Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
I don't think that is entirely fair.
Google is probably the single biggest copyright violation facilitator on the internet, and they certainly don't seem that inclined to take action to prevent the use of their platforms for that.
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Note only that, they / Alphabet lobbied so their OWN activities in illegally copying books are permitted.
They also encourage PDF as default upload for Google Books (which makes book piracy easier).
The big US Tech companies are in three camps:
1) Overly strict and extending Copyright unfairly: Disney and other traditional publishers.
2) Wanting to have no responsibility: Facebook and similar because it costs too much. Yet YouTube and Facebook are Publishers in every sense.
3) Wanting their own stuff copyright, but no limits on copying other publishers or private data from any agency for their own use. Or even to republish it.
Google/Alphabet is 2 (YouTube) & 3 (Google Books, Google Art). Amazon is in 3. (Goodreads, IMDB) Also Amazon wants a more encompassing monopoly of content.
Don't believe anything from any Google/Alphabet funded lobby about the EU law. EFF gets funding from Google. Google spends almost a Billion worldwide each year on various lobby groups and lobbying.
DMCA, DRM, extensions of Copyright, having to register Copyright in USA, authorised violation of book copyright for scanning and "capture" of alleged orphan works are the most unfair things and ALL are due to lobbying of big USA Corporations. Yet USA still doesn't pay copyright properly on music played on radio (there is lyric, music and performance rights). USA Companies, not anonymous pirates or China have been the biggest copyright, trademark & patent thieves of the 19th, 20th and 21st C. Conan Doyle, Dickens and Tolkien being famous victims. Aided by USPTO, though eventually the US Government had to step in an invalidate Edison's dishonest Cinema patents. An Englishman in New York "patented" Hellesen's Dry Battery (already in production in Denmark). That patent was bought by the company later called Eveready (NCC / UC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Hellesen
There are 1000s of examples.
Certainly Chinese companies and their Government have reused Patented ideas (But many are invalid patents) and copyright material, but not more than most average countries.
Apple stole iPod, iPad and iPhone names and had to buy off Cisco, Fujitsu and someone else later. They got sued by Swiss rail successfully. The Lisa/Mac was based on Xerox work. All the parts including GUI, except iOS, of iPhone were bought in. Apple beat Samsung in court due to a "Design Patent" (UK = Registered Design, for stuff like distinctive shape of Coke bottle). The USPTO should never have accepted it. But hardly any USPTO decision is over-ruled in court by a Foreign company, only USA ones.