Don't be Evil, Part...Oh, who knows...

[rolanni]

For those who have wondered why it is I sporadically go on and on about the Google Settlement -- there was a meeting to 'splain it all, yesterday, in New York. I couldn't go, but suricattus did, and she took notes

Comments

SWFA is having an on-line discussion/forum

[(Anonymous)]

I assumed y'all knew about it.
I'm lurking as it's interesting to hear the practical details.

They're up to
http://sfwa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=1020&start=40

if you're still interested.
Lauretta

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, my, that (just finished reading linked notes and other threads) ...that...mess...(my vocabulary fails me) truly _is_ evil...definitely past time to sick Bugs on 'em!

Funny, no cross that and replace with tragic, I never really expected to see Google so neatly filling shoes of quintessential Evil Empire. This is just _so_ wrong!

The future of Story is clearly at stake here.

Jim

[(Anonymous)]

Recommended. "The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind" by James Boyle, a Williams Neal Reynolds Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law, and winner of the 2008 Donald McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Policy Research. Published by Yale University Press (amazon.com, $12.24). There are some items (like peanut butter & jelly sandwiches) that belong in the public domain. But, no: US Patent number 6,004,596, held by Smuckers!

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Please do not get patents and copyrights confused --

that's part of what the IP lawyers want you do do. My story can feed me -- it cannot save the world, nor cure the ill, nor any of the other things that some patented things can or claim to do. Our story can feed us ... that's our plan.

What we want is to be sure that we control what we've built. Google is saying that somehow they have the right to keep everything in print, and that just is not so. There is no absolute right of the world to my words.

[seabat4.livejournal.com]

Why would you NOT want your books to stay in print (not under Google's control, of course)?
Cathy

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

You might want to create-or-prove a demand in the marketplace; there might be another, new edition in play (Google thought that Agent of Change was out of print and fair game -- which it is, in the Del Rey edition. However, it happens to be very much in print -- as an ebook -- and will soon be part of an omnibus from Baen).

Having your book in print does you no good if you-the-author can't, as Steve mentions, benefit from its sale. Google is limiting how much I can benefit from the sale of my books through it; the Authors Guild will take another fee for adminstrative costs of its Registry; and the presence of a Google-edition may limit my ability to sell reprints elsewhere.

[lagilman]

Thanks for the link. I am told that Paul took exception to my comments, and said something unkind about me.

*weeps*

*no, not really*

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I am told that Paul took exception to my comments, and said something unkind about me.

Oh, how dreadful for you.

*pours the wine and hands suri a glass*

[laurajunderwood.livejournal.com]

You rock, Surricatus. Wish I'd been there to watch you in action.

On the whole, it sounds like great big ripoff by Google, no matter what they say.

I'm a librarian by day, and I think we should "protect" copyright and Google is out to get rid of it--just my humble opinion, of course.

I opted out.

They have scanned nothing of mine, and I want to keep it that way.

Laura J. Underwood

Google Settlement

[(Anonymous)]

I like to think I'm a pretty smart person, but this confused the crap out of me, and I started reading from the beginning. I have no opinion, but you have my sympathy for having to make the decision.

Good Luck! Maureen