http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2009/09/08/we-must-stop-google-books-because-it-will-work/

We Must Stop Google Books Because It Will Work!!!

There are good reasons to worry about the Google Book Search
Settlement, as I explained at length here.  But of all of the reasons
to oppose it, this utterly surreal statement is my favourite.

European officials fear that if the Google project goes ahead in the
US, a yawning transatlantic gap will open up in education and research.

“Oh my God!  The Americans are about to create a private workaround of
the enormous mess that we regulators have made of national copyright
policy!  They will fix the unholy legal screwups that leave most of
20th century culture books unavailable, yet still under copyright!
They will gain access to their cultural heritage — giving them a huge
competitive advantage in education.  This MUST BE STOPPED!!  No one
can be allowed to fix this for any other country because then we would
be left alone stewing in our own intellectual property stupidity!  We
must forbid their progress in order to protect our ignorance.

But wait, there’s more. If anyone does do it, it must be the state!
(Which so far has failed completely to provide legal access to orphan
works or commercially unavailable works, works that are unavailable
because of… wait for it, wait for it, the state locking up our
cultural heritage unnecessarily)

Google maintains it is engaged in the huge project for the public
good.  Others say such public good should be left to the public sphere.

[Actually, Google says it is doing it to make money, but that it will
produce an enormous public good, something that makes the company very
happy.]  But look at the phrase in bold.  Only the state may fix the
problems the state has created.  And if Europe can’t fix those
problems for itself, everyone else should be forbidden from doing so
as well. QED.  Now, to the credit of the EU, the article suggests that
the EU will pursue this not only by trying to ban what Google wants to
do, something France and Germany have already attempted, but by
“copyright reform and “public-private partnerships as a means to boost
digitisation of books.”  Great.  But how about treating the Google
Books project as a demonstration of an entirely unnecessary problem
created by states — particularly including European and American
copyright policy makers.  If it weren’t for the ridiculous copyright
extensions, abolition of formalities and ending of renewable terms,
we wouldn’t have the problem of the 20th century black hole.  Now a
company manages to craft a settlement that will work around this,
restoring, at least for some citizens of the world, access to a
heritage that they never should have lost — and to do so in a way that
pays authors and publishers where they can be found.  Europe’s
answer?  This must be forbidden!  Stop the settlement!  Make sure no
European books get freed!  Make European participation only on an “opt
in” basis,  so NO orphan works — by definition — can be included,
since they have no one to opt in for them.  Complain that a private
company is involved!!   Prevent this settlement now to stop the US
getting a lead, and maybe one day we’ll fix the problems that we the
regulators created in the first place!  (Yeah, right.)

Brilliant.  You couldn’t make this stuff up.

http://twitter.com/thepublicdomain


***************************************************************************
Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673






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