Google, the Deaf-and-Dumb Larcenist
November 17, 2009
You may want to read “Google Books Deal: Don’t Expect a Library Utopia, but Bring It On”. The write up describes the new Google Books deal. I found it useful, not so much for the analysis. The write up contains a wonderful Argumentum ad Hominem. The phrase that delighted my rhetorical sensitivity appears in this passage:
The resuscitation of out-of-print books is more like a thick burglar taking that ragged flea-bitten sofa left behind by your ex, putting it in the back of his white van, selling it to a sucker on eBay and splitting the profits with you. Bring it on, I say. Bring on Google, the deaf-and-dumb larcenist.
Google has been working away on books for a decade. Publishers have been asleep at the switch, so now the Google is a “deaf-and-dumb larcenist”. A calculating predator based on my research but not a larcenist. A larcenist is a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it. Google is an opportunist and a construct that must consume information to survive. My wonderful Tess is a predator. She ate a baby rabbit but I still find her a loyal pet and my favorite girl. Maybe the Times’s editorial team should rethink the Google and look at the bright side of the Google knowledge base?
Stephen Arnold, November 17, 2009
Because of the fragile state of some publishers, I will report to Endangered Species Committee that I was not compensated with a crust of bread for this write up by the addled goose. Geese are filthy stupid animals. What’s the Latin phrase for an attack on an addled goose?
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