Worse Than Suspected

So Kr!sh points me to this Forbes article that defends Google's new Print Library Project, through which Google plans to make relevant 'snippets' (actually, FIVE FULL PAGES) of any book freely available to anybody who searches for the right keywords. This snippet (and this is what is commonly known as a snippet) reveals how flawed the entire premise of the article is:

We already permit such uses of snippets for the development of book reviews. Google’s proposed technology is an extension of that. It permits much wider dissemination of relevant snippets of books--in doing so it will whet the appetite of a reading audience that is now global in scale. Authors and publishers stand to benefit greatly.

You heard them right. I thought at first that Google was only going to make one 'snippet' from each book available online, and took issue with it because they wouldn't define what a 'snippet' was. Turns out this whole Print Library thing is much worse than I thought it was.

The project scans entire books and stores them in Google's database. Now anybody who searches for a keyword in a certain book will be shown a complete page containing the search word and allow you to look at two full pages on either side of the original page. This, from anywhere in the book, including multiple snippets if they keyword turns up multiple results, including results from any other books in their database that match the search phrase. FIVE PAGES.

In essence, Google is making entire books searchable and available online.

Wanna see it in action? This is my search for "dissociative fugue" on Google Print. There are 659 results, and the first page, at least, is all good, solid information. I read five pages in 20 books, I'm an expert. I could pass exams without ever paying a single cent for a text book.

Am I the only person who sees the glaring problems with this? Right now, information found on the internet is on the internet with the explicit permission of the people who wrote it up, people who have been compensated to their satisfaction for their time and effort. The information that you and I are able to access online is not stolen content, unless it's an illegal download. Now, if I want, I'll legally be able to search for relevant passages in textbooks and technical papers and nonfiction books to look up any specific bit of information that I need. I will be able to print it out. I will never need to buy another nonfiction book again.

All this, without the permission of the creators of the content I am freely accessing, without them being compensated a penny for it.

So don't reassure me that these 'snippets' will be good advertisement, that it will benefit publishers and writers. Let the publishers and writers be the judge of that. Let them opt in to this program if they so wish. Don't force your so-called benefits on them if they don't want it, don't make them go through the trouble of opting out manually if they don't want to be included in your shameless rights-grab.

Google search and Google ads are off this blog in protest. I am exploring other hosting options for the blog. I think it's time for me to move to my own site.