Google Print is really just good book marketing
Tags: Marketing, Google, Books, Google Print, Journalism
Eric Schmidt wrote an excellent article defending the purpose and business of Google Print and why the AAP shouldn't be suing them. His bottom line (although not in so many words): Indexing is just another form of marketing books to people who want to know their contents. Book publisher marketing departments are always looking for new ways to reach prospective buyers; Google just allows a world-wide audience to find out about authors' books instead of just the few who stumble across them. It's a great and well-written article too!
In many ways, this controversy about Google Print reminds me of the early days of the Web when copyright holders made arguments that no one ought to be able to link to their content without paying royalties. This debate is just one more silly extension of a copyright law that, in my opinion, has far outreached its original intent.
Eric Schmidt wrote an excellent article defending the purpose and business of Google Print and why the AAP shouldn't be suing them. His bottom line (although not in so many words): Indexing is just another form of marketing books to people who want to know their contents. Book publisher marketing departments are always looking for new ways to reach prospective buyers; Google just allows a world-wide audience to find out about authors' books instead of just the few who stumble across them. It's a great and well-written article too!
In many ways, this controversy about Google Print reminds me of the early days of the Web when copyright holders made arguments that no one ought to be able to link to their content without paying royalties. This debate is just one more silly extension of a copyright law that, in my opinion, has far outreached its original intent.
posted by Carl Howe at
4:51 PM
| View blog reactions
| 
