Sunday, November 01, 2009

Bad Analogies

What Google is doing with Google Books would NOT be like if you or I went into a library and scanned a million books. Just because someone can make a bad analogy doesn't make their analogy fact. Google got the permission of the libraries.

If you or I got the same permission from the libraries to scan a million books... not for personal use, but to make it possible for others to find these books and know which libraries these books are available in... we would not be put into handcuffs. However, I'm sure that people would use bad analogies to make us look like criminals.

in reference to:

"“Imagine if you or I went into a library and scanned a million books. You’d be taken out in handcuffs,” said Edelman. “For Google to get this unique right and for it to be able to continue to use the fruits of this unauthorised scanning, that rubbed people up the wrong way. It’s like a school bully stealing your ice cream and then, when the teacher catches him, he gets to eat it anyway. It doesn’t feel fair, does it?”"
- http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article6898010.ece (view on Google Sidewiki)

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