Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 6 months, you surely know the grief created when Google launched Google Print (Now called Google Book Search). Copyright holders, as they are apt to do, lined up with pitchforks and torches to burn down Google’s offices for daring to allow people to search their precious tomes online, calling it a violation of copyright. Despite the silliness of the claims (would you read a 500 page book scanned at low resolution on a computer monitor), Google tried on numerous occasions to appease the critics, and as an ultimate solution offered an opt-out mechanism for publishers, which some took.

Now we see that their objections weren’t that Google was going to be offering book searching, it’s that they couldn’t make money off of the concept.

Enter Amazon.com:

Through a service called Amazon Pages, Amazon will allow people to “inexpensively” buy chapters from a book and read them online, the Seattle-based company said in a statement. Customers will get complete online access to the book through another service called Amazon Upgrade. Both services are an extension of Amazon’s existing search within a book program. The company, which didn’t specify prices, didn’t return phone calls for comment.

“Amazon Pages and Amazon Upgrade leverage Amazon’s existing Search Inside the Book technology to give customers unusual flexibility in how they buy and read books,” said CEO Jeff Bezos. “In collaboration with our publishing partners, we’re working hard to make the world’s books instantly accessible anytime and anywhere.”

Did you catch the important word in those two paragraphs? Come on, sure you did. You’re smart. You’re technically savvy. You know things… Oh, and it’s in boldface.

Publishers hate Google Book Search because they scanned the books and allowed people to search them for the content they wanted. Kind of funny that they would object to such a thing from Google because to the left of every search result is an actual link to buy the actual book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others, but they do, obviously because Google isn’t paying the King’s ransom that copyright holders seem to think anyone is entitled to anytime someone merely thinks about their products.

“The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights,” said AAP President Patricia Schroeder. “While authors and publishers know how useful Google’s search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers.”

No specifics were given by Schroeder as to how, exactly, Google was going to make “millions” with Google Book Search.

However, the Association of American Publishers is clearly on board with Amazon’s plan:

“Amazon seems to be going about the right way by respecting the rights of authors and publishers,” said Judy Platt, spokesman for the Association of American Publishers, in an interview.

The Author’s Guild is also all for selling bits of books a bit at a time:

Finding new sources of revenue for publishers will also benefit authors, said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild.

“If there is a new way to get some value out of some books, than the authors will be able to share in that value in some way,” he said.

Authors? Some way?

By a show of hands, does anyone here really believe that authors will see one cent of this? And when it comes to sharing in value, how much more sharing do you think the publishers will be doing?

If you’re an author, would you want your work cut up and sold in pieces? Google’s model may allow people to search the entire book, but if they want it, they have to buy the whole book. Amazon’s model allows people to “inexpensively” buy pieces. If I’m an author, and I’m looking to what’s going to benefit me, why would I go with Amazon’s nickel and dime?

The truth is, I have no problem with Amazon’s plan or Google’s plan. I think both of them have a role and a place in the marketplace for the most part. What I have a problem with is the publishers complaining about something that adds value for book buyers without them having to pay for it, versus giving them a trickle and charging them for it which they have no problems with. Until corporations and copyright holders loosen their grips on their content a bit and stop treating all their customers like they’re about to go running out and make a million unauthorized copies of every work, this price gouging and lock it down type mentality will always be around.

No true value for the consumer, or the creator of the content, just tons for the corporate copyright holders.

Source: Thestreet.com

Technorati Tags: Copyright, Google, Amazon Pages, Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Google Book Search, Patricia Schroeder, Association of American Publishers, Author’s Guild

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