Articles on Copyright

On Wednesday February 24th, 2010 there were two articles in "The Australian" that were related to this current topic (on pages 28 and 29).

The first was by Colin Steele with the article "Who will own what we read?" He spoke about a "revolution in communication unparalleled since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century". The article discusses access to information and who controls this information. It discusses the question of who will own Google ten years from now and the implication this may have. This question is raised as in January this year founders of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced that between them they intend to sell 10 million shares in Google during the next five years.

The second article by Lawrence Lessig titled "Copyright deal is a cultural disaster." This article looks at the Google launched project in 2004 to scan 18 million books to make them accessible on the web. The accessibility would depend on the type of book and would go from "snippet access"to full access.

This Authors Guild of America and the Association of American Publishers were against this happening and said it violated copyright law regarding digital technology.

Although Google scanned the works to index them the plaintiff said without the permission from the copyright owner, Google was a pirate.

Google settled the lawsuit (the settlement was 165 pages long). This allowed Google to "pay for the right to make up to 20 per cent of copyrighted books whose author could not be found available to the public for free; and beyond 20 per cent, the public could pay to access the full book, with the funds given over to a new non-profit body charged with getting these royalties to the authors who want them."

The article discusses people who have attacked the Google settlement It looks at the two extremes. One, the abolition of copyright and secondly licensing everything. In conclusion the article mentions that we need an approach that recognises the errors of both sides.

Steele, Colin. 2010, "Who will own what we read" The Australian Wednesday February 24, p. 28

Lessig, Lawrence. 2010 "Copyright deal is a cultural disaster" The Australian Wednesday February 24, p.28-29