1 reply to this topic

[Dave]

Google settles book lawsuit and what does Wired do? They cheer like a 12-year-old girl. What a gutless, short-sighted magazine they are and have been.

Google pays a pittance out of court (why the lawsuit didn't go to court is not addressed in the article). Google gets more than a third of the revenue. Here's the kicker, authors and publishers will have to pay a 10 to 20 percent administrative fee if they actually want to get paid. Nice.

Here's the overt tone of the article: Google is assembling and protecting the vast store of human knowledge. And yes it's making a profit too. But mostly it's about sunny-cheeked people getting to read all sorts of great things that they might otherwise not have access to. Ahem, except for the part where Goggle is going to restrict access to this digital resource, but never mind that. (The bit at the end about free "terminals" in public libraries is vague; the whole sentence is an afterthought. This is par for the course with Wired's approach to writing and editing.)

This is a private entity (publicly held) that is controlling the access to what will become a vast store of books. It's not the 42nd St. New York Public Library. It's not a public institution. It's a private entity that can, without being accountable to anyone but itself, withhold access at its whim. Wired being Wired doesn't address this. They never do. They're cheerleaders. Blind leading the blind.

[Deb]

People can be so retarded...