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I can't find it, but we've had this argument before.  So not going through this again...

Someone have a link to that discussion?  Mig?

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 12:36:40 PM EST
poemless:
So not going through this again...

Then why do you comment at all in this diary? I enjoyed reading it.

by Fran on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 12:44:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I was hoping someone could find a link to the previous diary about this so I didn't have to type everything all over again.  Migeru often does that when the topic of one diary has already been discussed in depth in a previous one.  It's good for reference.  But Google isn't turning it up for me, and I don't remember the name of the diary.

All that said, I do think the points made in that discussion are valuable and would prove a lot of information for the diarist here.

It's really not a terribly uncommon phenomenon here Fran.  We can't assume everyone has read everything already posted.  Instead of your rhetorical question you could be helping me locate the previous diary.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 12:49:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think - though I am speculating - that Fran misread your sigh and "So not going through this again..." as a reference to the topic, not the problems of locating the previous diary. As in "Sigh, are we having this discusion again..."

Otherwise, I have just misread Fran. (And someone else can jump in to interpret, be misread and the someone else can jump in ...)

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by A swedish kind of death on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 01:13:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, you understood my comment correctly. Thanks!
by Fran on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 01:18:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Found it!

A discussion of Google books, books in libraries, etc.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 12:56:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I've read part of that discussion but haven't found an answer to the question bugging me.  Google appears to have gotten (US) legal sanction to digitise books whose copyright it odes not own.  Does that legal ruling also allow it to charge for access to the digital books without reimbursing the copyright owners?

As a general aside, US courts appear to have a habit of allowing US companies free access to non US assets with no regard for the asset owners - patents, research findings, brand names etc.  This has always seemed to me to be the most insidious aspect of US imperialism.  We have a right to take what we want because we rule...

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Fri Sep 4th, 2009 at 01:31:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Does that legal ruling also allow it to charge for access to the digital books without reimbursing the copyright owners?

And who, exactly, is going to stop Google from charging royalties on properties it neither owns nor paid for?  

What we have here--as was mentioned--is digital information being put, ultimately, under corporate lock and key.  And that corporation, seemingly, will be Google.  

(BTW royalties rarely help artists, but do help the corporations who can seize and distribute their work.  We need to give up the whole idea of intellectual property--as it does not give good results.)  

We are looking at an intellectual dark age.  I had not expected to live to see it, but my last trip to a suburban bookstore has persuaded me the dark age has arrived already.  The books still exist, but they are consumed--not read.  The cappuccino is already taking precedence.  

Be your own monk and preserve what you think is worth saving.  Everything not thus saved by someone who cares about it will go.  

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Sat Sep 5th, 2009 at 03:19:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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