As if Google hasn’t taken over the world yet, their most recent conquest is to acquire millions of book titles from major libraries. The Justice Department has twice already impeded Google’s journey towards acquisition, claiming that their accruement of these titles would set a conflict with the copyrights of those titles. It would also give Google a monopoly over all those works whose copyright owners could not be found or had already expired.
Thankfully, the Justice Department has put effort into protecting the rights of copyright owners and authors alike, however, by opposing Google plan to digitize all these titles, they would be putting a roadblock to furthering the creativity that limitations on copyright is meant to encourage. The Justice Department of Justice recognizes the positive effects of allowing Google to go through with the deal, being that people will be able to access millions of titles that were previously not made for public use. It also allows for the authors of those works to turn some more profit. This seems overall like a great plan, but there are always going to be those who oppose, in this case, the authors whose permission was not asked by Google, and Google’s competitors in the book market. Amazon, one of the competitors to Google, sees their entire business falling to shambles if Google is capable of pushing forward with this deal and making all those titles possible for viewing on the computer. Amazon evades the copyright issue by only letting the consumer see a number of select pages of each book listed with their website, the copyright page included.
The wealth of knowledge Google can spread to its visitors if this deal goes through is insurmountable. Access to a truly digital library will make the lives of students, academics and book lovers alike, much easier. They will allow access to books that were previously not made easily found to the general public, as well as compile them in one large library that is easily accessible, like most other Google platforms. The Justice Department should work hard to protect the rights of all those who are deserving of copyright, but they should work harder to ensure that Google is able to provide the public with a free library that can live up to the true meaning of copyright.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/technology/internet/05publish.html?ref=media
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It seems that the Internet is increasingly becoming a world of “survival of the fittest” and Google is on top. I agree that Google should be able to access and allow the book titles from this library through their through engine. This seems like it would fall into the “progression of arts and sciences” making book information more readily available to people who might not otherwise have direct library access (due to physical handicap, socioeconomic conditions, etc…) to an array of various titles. I say, go for it!