I'm serious, what Google is trying to do here is pretty scary. Google is hoping to create a digital library of every book ever published! Unfortunately for Google, Judge Denny Chin blocked Google's attempt at digitizing every book ever published. Google's goal, was to create the world's largest digital library, which is consistent with Google's main initiative of making all of the world's information freely available. When news began to leak about Google's idea, it was originally met with great backlash from prominent authors and publishing companies, who claimed this would rob them of millions of dollars in revenue. However, Google was willing to reach settlements with each of the involved parties in hopes of carrying out their ambitious idea. Eventually, what seemed like a Google vs. authors and publishers battle, ended up with the original combatants siding with each other against Google's main rivals Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo. Google hoped that they could form a legal agreement with top publishing companies that would allow books to be sent directly to Google's digital library, not the UGLI or grad. Ultimately, Judge Denny Chin said doing so would have granted Google a "de facto monopoly" on the publishing industry, which could have caused an uncountable number of companies to go out of business. What do you guys think about Google's idea to create a library where every book ever published would be freely accessible? Do you think this would have been generally beneficial for us in the 21st century, or would it have been pushing the limits of technology?
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Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI find this post very interesting being that AT&T, a very powerful phone service provider, recently bought out T-Mobile in one of the biggest purchases in phone history. With that being said I do understand what you are trying to say about Google, but my question to you is "If this was any other company would it be an issue?" Google is extremely powerful, as it is in the top 3 most used sites globally, not only for the search engine but also for everything else it provides users. The digital books were going to be another example as such, due to the fact that all books will inevitably end up digital anyway. Google is trend setting and creative, I do not think Monopoly is the correct term though. Interesting post.
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteThis post really opened my eyes even further to the limitless capabilities of technology and the internet. When you're dealing with Google especially, there's no telling what new invention will come next. Google has revolutionized the world as they have made information so easily accessible to everyone no matter who or where they are. In this case, however, I don't think the digitizing of books is really necessary. Sure, it'll be great for those like lazy teens who don't want to get out of bed and make a trip to the library or book store, but how about those people that are "old fashioned" and like the feel of paperback or like making a trip to the book store as an activity? Even worse, what will happen to book stores like my personal favorite, Barnes and Noble? Will they become obsolete just as HMV, the CD/music store, did when itunes came out? Personally, I don't think this invention is one that is worth the trouble of getting the rights from all the authors of these books and whatever else Google will have to do. Is it really that necessary? I don't think so. Can't we just keep some things "old-fashioned" so we have some parts of our world that is "traditional" and not run by technology?
I completely agree with Sophie when she claims that this aspect of Google is unnecessary. As I was reading your post, Tyler, I immediately thought about what will happen to book stores such as Borders. For me, i enjoy going to a library and I enjoy buying a book from a store. I would not say I am old fashioned, but it is the whole concept of actually holding the book in my hand that I would one hundred percent miss if all books became digitized. What I also think is important is that a lot of people go to the library to work because reading online can be a distraction. When I am at the library researching for a paper, I'd get so much more done actually reading the book than I would if I were reading the book online. Why do you think Delia tells us to print out our readings? The act of reading from a book and from a computer are extremely different and it is important to note that people get more out of the text when it is being read away from the computer screen. So for that reason along with the desire for traditional values, I am going to agree with Soph that the digitizing of all books is unnecessary.
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