Friday, June 08, 2007 6:18 AM
engadget and Techdirt offered posts this week which seemed to underscore how uncomfortable changes wrought by emerging technologies can be. See Publishing exec 'steals' Google laptops in silly demonstrations and Book Publisher Resorts To Cheap Stunts: Steals Google Laptops. The weblogs were reacting to an article in The Register, Book publisher steals Google laptops and the book publisher's own post on the subject, in which he relates a story about momentarily stealing a couple of laptops from Google's booth at BookExpo America.
Richard Charkin, CEO of Macmillan Publishers, wrote the post The heist at his Charkin Blog. In the post, he laid out his backstory for "the heist:"
There's no computer where a computer should be to the left of the gentleman's arm. You will also notice that there is no sign saying 'please do not steal the computers'. I confess that a colleague and I simply picked up two computers from the Google stand and waited in close proximity until someone noticed. This took more than an hour.
Our justification for this appalling piece of criminal behaviour? The owner of the computer had not specifically told us not to steal it. If s/he had, we would not have done so. When s/he asked for its return, we did so. It is exactly what Google expects publishers to expect and accept in respect to intellectual property.
'If you don't tell us we may not digitise something, we shall do so. But we do no evil. So if you tell us to desist we shall.'
I felt rather shabby playing this trick on Google. They should feel the same playing the same trick on authors and publishers.
Professor Lawrence Lessig reacted to all of the above with the opening line in his post From Engaget: “Publishing exec ‘steals’ Google laptops in silly demonstration” — of just how little publishing executives understand:
Engaget reports that “the head honcho of Macmillan Publishers” lifted a couple Google laptops at a recent BookExpo America, and then when he returned them, retorted “hope you enjoyed a taste of your own medicine,” and “there wasn’t a sign by the computers informing him not to steal them.”
So this betrays an astonishing level of ignorance, even for a “head honcho.”
He then continues with a detailed overview of Google Books and copyright. Hit the link above to get the full story from his post.
I don't know enough about the two (or more) schools of thought as to the Google scanning project to give a thoughtful opinion of my own. But, I do kow that there are some passionate feelings on all sides. I also know that the issue is not going away in the face of ever more powerful technologies. As I watch the music industry struggle in the face of new technology, I do wonder about the ability for the book publishing industry to hold back the tide. Is it better to fight against the tide or find a way to ride it?
Interesting stuff.