Google president lies like a cheap rug

Not sure if any of you read the advertorial op-ed column in the New York Times last week where Google Technology President Sergey Brin voiced his thoughts on the Google books campaign but one sentence really irked me.

Today, if you want to access a typical out-of-print book, you have only one choice — fly to one of a handful of leading libraries in the country and hope to find it in the stacks.

He cannot possibly believe that? All you have to do is type "Out-of-print books" into his own service and see AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon, Biblio, BookFinder, etc offering more OOP options that you could shake a virtual stick at.  The rest of the article reads like a cheap advertorial.

I'm not even versed enough in the whole Google Books rights controversy to say whether i'm for or against it (note: book lunch with Charlie, learn more) but this essay is trash.

[Now Reading: Our Man in Havana by Grahame Greene]

Comments

[Tom Moullet]

Google is about having open information (read: "free" and easy). I think "access" was a carefully chosen word, he didn't use 'buy', 'own', or 'procure'. When Brin was talking about "access" I believe he was talk about getting past barriers that would come with buying a OOP book. First you have to come up with tens, hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, next you have to locate a trustworthy seller of the book, and then you have to wait a week or two for fulfillment and mailing. With Google Book Search all you need is to type in a title to have immediate access to the full text.

I fully agree with you that this peice was inappropriate for the NYT to run, much more suited for the Google Blog where I read it.

[R. B. Bernstein]

I disagree with the previous comment. Brin clearly was not thinking about used-book dealers, in part because he may envision Google Books as the only future source of out-of-print books other than visiting a large research library. I believe that they've already announced a service -- a pay service, not a free service -- by which you can visit a bookstore that hosts a Google terminal, order an out-of-print book, and have a print-to-order copy created, bound, and delivered right into your hands. It's not the same as the real thing, of course, but it's close enough for many people.

[Biblibio]

Hmm. I'm going to have to agree that the key word is "access". He's not exactly lying, but manipulating the truth. Access can mean a whole variety of things, among them purchasing and viewing. I think Google's attitude is much more in line with the viewing (as opposed to owning an actual volume). It is interesting, though... hmm.

[Ashley Mays]

Hilarious

[James Portman]

Unfortunately, you are also violating copyright in some markets by including publishers providing printouts on demand of books which are not yet in the public domain in some countries. I think we're taking a far too cavalier an attitude towards cultural property.

[watch gossip girl]

I am to submit a report on this niche your post has been very very helpfull

[Michael Longo]

I don't believe the google executive was lying. His response could have been crafted better and provided more information about the subject.