[WikiEN-l] Google Books class action lawsuit

[Charles Matthews]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
> 2009/9/5  <WJhonson at aol.com>:
>   
>> In a message dated 9/5/2009 2:37:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
>> thomas.dalton at gmail.com writes:
>>
>>
>>     
>>> Either Google or the publisher/author of the book you viewed. People
>>> get sued for bypassing DRM, why couldn't they be sued for bypassing
>>> restrictions on Google books?>>
>>>       
>> Google suffers no damage from people in Namibia viewing a book through a
>> proxy.
>>     
>
> Ok, so it would be publisher or author, then.
>
>   
Returning to the article at the top of the thread 
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8237271.stm), a Google supporter 
is quoted as saying "We see access to knowledge as a civil right", 
language which would at least suggest support conditional on respect for 
the rights of others. As opposed, for example, to those m*r*ns and 
believers in free lunches who hang out on file-sharing sites.

A great thing about WP is that we are prepared to do the work required 
to provide the access to knowledge, without ripping off authors.

So, what exactly are we supposed to think of the suggestion that Google 
should settle this suit on the cheap by providiing access in some way 
globally restricted, in the situation that there will be rationing of 
access to the technically savvy who are prepared to disregard terms of 
service, in some parts of the world? "You can of course study here, but 
only (in some cases) by putting yourself in a false position, if you are 
unlucky enough not to be in a major market for web advertising we really 
care about." Say, isn't that the reaction of some search engines to 
compromise with the Great Firewall of China, just with "if you are 
unlucky enough not to be" replaced by "if you are unlucky enough to be"?

Treating knowledge-poor folk as poor relations. Nothing like it to warm 
the cockles of the heart.

Charles