No one is trouble-free in this world. Are thore people right? Or is it just being fussy?
STORY ONE: Rupert Murdoch to Google: “Steal” Someone Else’s Stories!
“I think we will [remove our websites from Google’s search index] but that’s when we start charging,” he said.
He added: “The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories – they just take them. That’s Google, that’s Microsoft, that’s Ask.com, a whole lot of people … they shouldn’t have had it free all the time, and I think we’ve been asleep.”
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STORY TWO: Switzerland takes Google to court
Web search giant Google faces a court case in Switzerland because of privacy concerns over its Street View service.
The application allows a 360-degree view of any street-level location.
“Numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently unrecognisable,” said data protection commissioner Hanspeter Thuer.
Google said it was disappointed by the move. The firm says it is sure that Street View is legal in Switzerland and will “vigorously contest” the case.
Line of sight
Mr Thuer is especially concerned about people shown in sensitive locations such as hospitals, prisons or schools.
He also said that the height of the camera was problematic because it allowed a view over fences, hedges and walls, meaning that more could be seen from Street View than by a normal passer-by.
The commissioner said Google was asked in August to take various measures and had not complied with the requests.
It is likely to take months before any court case actually starts, but it could have a more immediate impact on the Swiss availability of the service.
Mr Thuer has asked a tribunal to order Google to remove all pictures of Switzerland and to cease taking any more until a ruling has been made.
STORY THREE: Europe split on Google book plans
By David Reid
Reporter, BBC Click
Book
Google’s $125m deal with the American book industry is on hold
Google plans to put millions of the world’s books online and create the world’s largest virtual library by 2010.
The company has already scanned 10 million out-of-print books as part of its Library Project.
Google plans to charge people for access to its large online collection of books and to act as a selling agent of books through its Google Editions.
Critics fear it is creating a monopoly over information, and are unhappy at the firm digitising titles against the wishes of many authors and publishers.
‘Scandalous’
French publisher La Martiniere is one of many who have taken Google to court for using its books without asking first.
“What I find a bit scandalous is that a company like Google can come and digitise works published by this company without asking our permission and without paying either the authors or the publishers,” said publisher Herve de La Martiniere.
He launched his court case three years ago, but Google has continued scanning books during this period.
“I find this intolerable,” said Mr La Martiniere. “It is like someone comes to your house and takes your furniture and says, ‘if you want to come and get them back, you can, but in the meantime they are mine’,” he added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
The German Chancellor believes copyright should be protected online
Google reached a $125m deal with the American book industry in 2008, but implementation of it has been delayed by a judge in New York.
While a US agreement may be in sight, Google is yet to come to a blanket legal arrangement with European authors and publishers.
Listening
In October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel attacked Google in her weekly video blog by saying that copyright must be protected on the internet.
She said her government rejected Google’s “scanning of books without any copyright protection”.
Google is applying to have the La Martiniere case heard in the United States, where the copying took place.
American law allows Google to show excerpts of copyrighted books, but the law in France forbids it.
Santiago de la Mora, head of print content partnerships in Europe for Google, said his firm was listening to publishers.
“If the publisher has granted us permission to display a percentage of the book, we will do so. If not, then you will only see a snippet, a little abstract or fragment,” he said. “We are very much aware of the difference.”
Mr de la Mora added that more than 30,000 publishers have granted Google permission to display a preview of books – he believes this will make consumers more likely to buy them.
Patrick Bazin, Lyon library director
Library director Patrick Bazin is happy about Google digitising books for free
Free digitising
The European Union has its own project to digitise library collections which was first mooted as a counter to Google.
The Europeana project aims to keep art, culture and out-of-print books free from commercial control.
Not everyone is opposed to Google’s plans – some libraries view the firm’s commercial ambitions as a chance to get their collections digitised for free.
Patrick Bazin, director of the library in the French city of Lyon, explained that if libraries do not digitize their collections, they run the risk of disappearing from the cultural landscape.
He added that Google’s investment could be used to his library’s advantage.
“Our aim is not to supply a private company with digital versions of our books, but to have digital versions so we can build a digital library.
“We estimated that to digitise the 500,000 books we are going to would cost us 60m euros. We don’t have 60m euros,” he explained.
ANOTHER SIDE: New stuff from GOOGLE
Google Alerts – are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
Google’s Wave – is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation
and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
Google Labs – find our more about Google projects
Is Google doing good or bad?
Are those ‘site effects’ of Google practice worrying?
Waiting for your opinions.
Z.