You miss the point entirely. Google books increases discoverability, that's great that can be exploited to increase sales. The problem with the GBS is that it grants through a civil court this incredibly valuable concession to to single company, when the same question was on track to be resolved legislatively, with the Orphan Copyright Act, killed in committee in October of 2008. The Orphan Copyright Act addressed the most important central questions of the GBS, but in an equitable way, providing for vastly expanded access to out-of-print books. Instead we get British East India company of the written word, and publishers are supposed to be troglodytes if they aspire to a greater good?
There are many ways I can exploit the GBS, and I will, but it doesn't change the fact that it falls so terribly short of serving the public good that it is not unreasonable to characterize it as horrific.
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the greater good
You miss the point entirely. Google books increases discoverability, that's great that can be exploited to increase sales. The problem with the GBS is that it grants through a civil court this incredibly valuable concession to to single company, when the same question was on track to be resolved legislatively, with the Orphan Copyright Act, killed in committee in October of 2008. The Orphan Copyright Act addressed the most important central questions of the GBS, but in an equitable way, providing for vastly expanded access to out-of-print books. Instead we get British East India company of the written word, and publishers are supposed to be troglodytes if they aspire to a greater good?
There are many ways I can exploit the GBS, and I will, but it doesn't change the fact that it falls so terribly short of serving the public good that it is not unreasonable to characterize it as horrific.