Ethanol Demagogue wrote:

Enter Google, the hip, incredibly profitable corporation whose motto is "Do No Evil." Google doesn't like the copyright laws as they have existed for centuries. Google wants the rights to store all the books in the world in its Google Library program, and the company doesn't want to pay for that right.

Copyright? No problem. Google cites "fair use," but it isn't using 400 words; it plans to digitize whole libraries and make them available piece by piece. Google is formidable. Google has brilliant public relations people and clever lawyers and connections in important places.

I'm not getting the controversy here, hasn't Amazon been doing this for awhile now?

Amazon doesn't make the entire book available for you to read, for free, online.

I agree that copyright laws in the country are ridicules but this the wrong way to fight it. First Google should partner with the Project Gutenberg and index all their books. These are already in the public domain. Second, Google should lobby for expanding "fair-use" of works not in the public domain, perhaps for non-commerical or academic work. Google books could have a disclaimer about appropriate usage. Perhaps it should be rate limited to 25 books a day unless you register a .edu email address or something.

I support what Google is trying to do but Google will lose its "No Do Evil" status if blatantly violates statues even if those statues are stupid.

RE: Newsday.com: Just Google 'thou shalt not steal'