Tuesday, March 6, 2007

More Copyright Trouble for Google?

Recently, Thomas Rubin, associate general counsel for copyright, trademark, and trade secrets at Microsoft, called Google's business model "troubling" and accused Google of violating copyright law.

In a speech given Association of American Publishers, Rubin decried Google as having taken the wrong path because it "systematically violates copyright and deprives authors and publishers of an important avenue for monetizing their works."

This condemnation was brought about due to a conflict between Microsoft's Live Search Books project and Google's Book Search. Rubin claims that Microsoft only indexes books out of copyright or in the public domain, while Google's Book Search freely copies a work until notified by the copyright owner to stop.

Coincidentally, Google today announced a partnership with the Bavarian State Library to digitize more than a million public domain and out-of-print works.

Good luck Google.

LINK

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