Comments on: British Booksellers Association still has problems with Google Settlement http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/british-booksellers-association-still-has-problems-with-google-settlement/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:02:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kate http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/british-booksellers-association-still-has-problems-with-google-settlement/comment-page-1/#comment-1149299 Kate Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:39:26 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=32339#comment-1149299 Mike, One man's trash, as they say. Who are you to decide for me what is 'near-worthless'? Maybe what you hate is the very thing someone else might adore. Making *everything* available is the only real value the Google Books project has. All the 'good' (that is, popular) stuff is more than likely still in print or otherwise available. You don't have right to be a censor any more than anyone else has. Mike,

One man’s trash, as they say. Who are you to decide for me what is ‘near-worthless’? Maybe what you hate is the very thing someone else might adore.

Making *everything* available is the only real value the Google Books project has. All the ‘good’ (that is, popular) stuff is more than likely still in print or otherwise available.

You don’t have right to be a censor any more than anyone else has.

]]> By: Mike Perry http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/british-booksellers-association-still-has-problems-with-google-settlement/comment-page-1/#comment-1149295 Mike Perry Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:11:37 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=32339#comment-1149295 U.S. writers and publishers should take note that their counterparts overseas are delighted when their books are excluded from this settlement. Having a year's more experience with the market, they're not buying Google's always rather dubious claim that having a book available for free online via Google would stimulate demand for a printed versions. We need the same thing in the U.S. and that'd be easy to do. As the BA suggests, simply make the settlement optional and display only works by those who opt in. We could deal with orphan works by setting aside some of the profits to locate the copyright holders for books that matter rather than trashing copyright law to clutter Google's database with tens of thousands of near-worthless works that just get in the way. U.S. writers and publishers should take note that their counterparts overseas are delighted when their books are excluded from this settlement. Having a year’s more experience with the market, they’re not buying Google’s always rather dubious claim that having a book available for free online via Google would stimulate demand for a printed versions.

We need the same thing in the U.S. and that’d be easy to do. As the BA suggests, simply make the settlement optional and display only works by those who opt in. We could deal with orphan works by setting aside some of the profits to locate the copyright holders for books that matter rather than trashing copyright law to clutter Google’s database with tens of thousands of near-worthless works that just get in the way.

]]>