Google Books is a good thing

Despite the fact that I love the Internet, read newspapers and magazines online and on my iPhone, never buy an actual printed newspaper and believe that in ten years time print will all but die out, I still love books. I love going to a bookshop, especially antique bookshops, I have a collection of three or four first editions of my favourite authors and one day will inherit an early 20th century edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Which is why I’m really excited about Google Books.

Bringing books back to life

Essentially, Google Books will one day be a database of almost every book ever written. According to Google, the project will bring books back to life, books that are no longer in print and have been forgotten. They will give users access to these books by digitising them, so we will be able to read them online. Authors, who never thought their work would be read again, will now be forever published in the giant database. Published books will be sold via the site, linking to Amazon, Waterstones, Blackwells etc. In the future some authors will be able to charge a fee if their books are still in copyright, but out of print.

The trouble is that this runs contrary to the established copyright laws that protect the intellectual property of authors, which pretty much undermines how the publishing industry is set up and how authors make money. So, unsurprisingly, they’re quite upset about this. Musicians and journalists are already suffering as a result of the perception that all media should now be available for free. The publishing industry probably thought they were immune, protected by their ancient laws.

Google are now the bad guys

Google, however, have little respect for the old ways of sharing information. They plough on regardless and only worry about the consequences afterwards. Google Books was first launched in 2005, but they’ve been arguing with the Author’s Guild and the Association of American Publishers about how to deal with the problem of copyright. Finally, they have reached a settlement, which isn’t perfect, but is the first step to realising Google’s great plan.

Google have been made to be the bad guys here. Ten years ago they were this cool little search engine company, the darling of the internet, but they have become too powerful. People now fear them, worry that they will one day lay claim to all the information in the world. But it is the brilliance of their products, most of which are free to use, that has made them such a giant. Instead of trying to fight them, it is important to work with them, since they are almost undoubtedly the future of media across the world.

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