Google Book Search’s Reverse Onus on Copyright a Genius Move
Google has settled with the AAP. The news is all over. Both sides are claiming victory. Sergey Brin said, “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers.” Google pays $125 million but let’s be serious, Google is the victor here. The onus is now on publishers to do what they haven’t been able to do, what they are incapable of doing, what is impossible for them to do — get it together with international rights.
Google has just tricked publishers to commit to a solution that demands publishers mind their own affairs and sort out rights squabbles between themselves. Ecommerce has been around for ten plus years and I still see data and rights snafus every couple of weeks. Book publishers are incompetent when it comes to this stuff. Kevin Kelly called it back in 2006 — Google had to do it because the publishers weren’t going to. Good for them for making publishers buy into a system that Google runs but demands publishers stay on top of.
My one question is how friendly will this system be for Canadians to use? When the originating publisher couldn’t care less that their datafeed has incorrect Canadian (or international) rights information, will the system allow Canadian publishers to fix it? Getting anyone at Google on the phone is impossible right now.
[related -- Will They Block Googe Book Search in Canada]
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