Settlement with Google Book Search
Oct. 30th, 2008 05:18 pmGoogle settled with AAP (Association of American Publishers) for 125 million, proving (once again) that it's easier to beg forgivess than to ask permission.
Summary from mass corporate email, condensed:
( The corporate rah rah take on the settlement )
...Which doesn't address the really scary thing about Google Library Project (to fiction publishers), which is that every new book published will now have to compete with every book ever published (and scanned by Google). Especially with print on demand services on the rise.
On the other hand, new books already compete with library books and used books, and you can't stop the tide.
Publishing is supposed to be a "conservative" field but we are so far ahead of the RIAA (and MPAA) right now. And not just because Google did all the hard work: music had muxtape, didn't it? Before the RIAA shot themselves in the foot when they shut down the site. Maybe it's because digital books aren't really direct competition; maybe it's because public libraries have been around for ages; or maybe it's because the book industry was never very profitable to begin with.
Summary from mass corporate email, condensed:
( The corporate rah rah take on the settlement )
...Which doesn't address the really scary thing about Google Library Project (to fiction publishers), which is that every new book published will now have to compete with every book ever published (and scanned by Google). Especially with print on demand services on the rise.
On the other hand, new books already compete with library books and used books, and you can't stop the tide.
Publishing is supposed to be a "conservative" field but we are so far ahead of the RIAA (and MPAA) right now. And not just because Google did all the hard work: music had muxtape, didn't it? Before the RIAA shot themselves in the foot when they shut down the site. Maybe it's because digital books aren't really direct competition; maybe it's because public libraries have been around for ages; or maybe it's because the book industry was never very profitable to begin with.