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Digitize THIS, Google...
Freud asked "What do women want?", but I think the more relevant question in 2006 is "What does Google want?"
I ask because of Bob Thompson's excellent article in yesterday's Washington Post about the Google Print project. The company (really, do I need to add any descriptors whatsoever? I'm surprised we don't all have Google tattoos, at this point) wants to digitize library books. Maybe all library books. Maybe they're going to digitize this blog while I type it, too -- or before I type it. Kind of a "Minority Report" situation.
Yes, I'm being a bit fatalistic and more than a bit simplistic, but I hope you'll read Thompson's piece. Underneath (not so far underneath, actually) the pretty, idealistic idea of making all books available everywhere is a serious debate about intellectual property. Who owns what? When do copyrights expire? What is fair use? Etc., etc.
I think the debate needs to go deeper in our culture, to the layer of should we own anything? Before anyone flames me for being a Communist, let me add that I think the debate needs to go deeper -- not that all artists should hand over the rights to their works. Because the more we debate this, the more it will mean that works by an individual really do matter. That art really does matter.
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"Meager pay most writers make," Majbeck, is the operative phrase -- there are very few selling at blockbuster pace, even fewer than we'd thought, according to Chris Anderson's 'The Long Tail.' Are writers/artists, who don't get that much compensation to begin with, having the intellectual property that they do own compromised by publishers putting out too many new books every year?
Just something I ponder every now and then... -
how does an author make any money??? Nobody becomes a writer for the money... and unless your John Grisham or Jackie Collins, there really isn't millions to be made.. but this could really cut into the meager pay most writers make... read a chapter, don't like it, doesn't cost you a thing...
not sure if Bejamin Franklin would love this, as he was a capitalist in so many ways. -
This is like my dream come true. I already read excerpts of book chapters all the time online and I like the idea of being able to search for a famous line, paragraph, or character directly in the book. I mean, this is the age of technology, and it's also the age where the fountain of knowledge is right on the keyboard. I don't think they'll stop printing book out because of this it's too big of an economic/entertainment industry for people. It just makes me think of Benjamin Franklin and his printing press, we've come a long way haven't we?
8/15/06 4:15 PM