Google is a HUGE business. We all have to agree. The world is their customer base. With all that power comes responsibility, not free rights. I read a classmate’s blogpost on the current lawsuit that Authors Guild filed against the search engine giant. The company’s “Google Print Library Project” is aimed at making parts or full texts from some major University libraries available for online references. This includes scanning all those volumes of texts.
Although the idea may seem impressive, that is an open violation of copyright laws. I agree with Jeremy in that Google is taking advantage of its massive popularity. No matter how big their database is, they cannot be allowed to scan texts without permission from the authors/publishers. The company does not own the content. If all of it was made freely available online, people would visit libraries much less and prefer to do research from home.
Who wouldn’t like the idea of being able to search for library texts on Google? The convenience would be incredible. It would save time, costs and efforts. Advertising on these webpages would also generate more income for the company. However, the fact that it is unfair to the authors and publishers of the texts outweighs everything. They need to find a different way to implement this idea. Because right now, Google is being ridiculous!
