Two-Faced Google

Hypocrisy, and information:

Last month, Elinor Mills, a writer for CNET News, a technology news Web site, set out to explore the power of search engines to penetrate the personal realm: she gave herself 30 minutes to see how much she could unearth about [Google CEO Eric] Schmidt by using his company's own service. ...

When Ms. Mills's article appeared, however, the company reacted in a way better suited to a 16th-century monarchy than a 21st-century democracy with an independent press.

But even better:

Book publishers are feeling insecure in their own houses, too, as whirring search-engine bots hover above them. ... The contents of books are protected by copyright law, and are most emphatically not freely available.

... But Google subsequently found a speedier way to proceed: simply borrowing the bound print collections of the Harvard, Stanford and University of Michigan research libraries for its scanning. When the project is completed, Google will retain perfect digital copies, as well as provide copies to the libraries. No muss, no fuss, no negotiations with copyright holders.

Authors and publishers were astounded. Peter Givler, the executive director of the Association of American University Presses, said Google's action was "tantamount to saying that Google can make copies of every copyrighted work ever published, period." The courts, he said, have never recognized a claim such as Google's that "fair use," which permits limited copying for research purposes, would permit the copying of an entire book.

The cries of protest from publishers have not abated with the passage of time. This month, Google announced that it would go ahead and copy all books unless the publisher elects by November to opt out, title by title. Allan Adler, the vice president for legal and government affairs of the Association of American Publishers, asked Google to imagine what its own reaction would be were others to help themselves to Google's intellectual property covered by patents, with the burden placed on Google to find out about the use and opt out. He described Google's recent actions as "a very aggressive, pushy style that says, 'We don't care that your business is different than ours.' "