Short Honks: Google Books Emerges As Fair Use
October 16, 2015
Short honk: I read “Google’s Book Scanning Project Ruled to Be Legal Fair Use.” The legal battles have enriched BMW dealers for years. Here’s the paragraph I highlighted:
The world’s biggest search provider can keep adding to its digital library of millions of books without paying their authors, a U.S. appeals court said, ruling that the effort is “fair use” of published material under copyright law.
My view is that the Alphabet Google thing may have had Books to fry in 2004. Today the company is into a different fare. Alphabet Google does mobile, hot air balloons, and, of course, Glass 2.
Yes, legal eagles will drag this matter back into the courts. But today’s Alphabet is not yesterday’s Google. Next stop? Maybe the Supreme Court.
By the time the matter is resolved, will millennials notice whether books are searchable on the Google from their mobile phone? My hunch is that the Google Books project reaches back to the era when the Alphabet Google thing was still thinking fond thoughts about academic endeavors. Today, the Alphabet Google thingy may be preoccupied with thoughts about revenue, Facebook, and the annoyances of querulous European authorities.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2015
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