Klarinet Archive - Posting 000326.txt from 2005/08

From: ormo2ndtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: RE: [kl] google print
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 14:34:23 -0400

I wrote:

> "After all, it's a matter of freedom of
> information, isn't it?", says the thief.

Although "information should be free" pitch is a classic pitch, it is
not the most common apology for today's music theft. Much more often,
I hear:

"Someone else has already bought a copy. Therefore the artist _was_
compensated. You're just allowing me to listen to your copy."

This made me think about Google's explanation on their web page:

> "Where do these books come from? The
> book content in Google Print comes from two
> sources: publishers and libraries."

In the case of publishers, often (usually?) the author has sold all
rights to the content. Therefore the work is now the publisher's
property, and if the publisher wants it to be online, there's no
problem.

In the case of libraries, Google is (I believe?) a for-profit company,
and Google is not recognized by law as a public lending library, is it?

Have they paid the publisher for every library book that they
photocopied and are using for their own profit?

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org