[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

well, since the "law" (copyright law, that is) is an indisputable act of pillage of the public domain and is fundamentally at odds with the spirit in which copyright was created, i can't say i'm too bothered here personally.

The Google Settlement has nothing to do with copyright term limits and public domain. The settlement purports to grant Google the ability to distribute and earn money from ebooks without the explicit consent of, or any negotiation whatsoever with, the copyright holder. It's pretty clear that what Google is doing violates copyright.

To put it another way: how would you react if Amazon started producing and selling ebooks of out-of-print titles without asking the author's permission first and at a non-negotiable, pre-set rate? You'd be going through the ceiling decrying Amazon's heavy-handed greedy practices.

I hardly see how what Google is doing is in the "spirit" of copyright. It's in the spirit of Google securing itself as a primary, if not exclusive, repository of digital information, no matter whose rights have to get trampled in the process.

Originally Posted by ahi

Google wants to distribute books to a wider audience and compensate the rights-holders for each sale?! How dare they!

Or, one can say that Google wants a stranglehold on digitized information, wants to generate new legislation from a class-action lawsuit, and plans to offer rights-holders a non-negotiable pittance for their work.

Let's face it, Google is not a charity and they are not doing this out of the Pure Shiny Goodness of their hearts. They're just as much a business as any other company.