more on "Google Print" and Ethics

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com>
Date: August 13, 2005 4:32:02 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on "Google Print" and Ethics
Reply-To: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com>



With regard to Google's mining of books in libraries - I am sure that  
the publishers will protect their interests.

But to change the subject slightly - I've become concerned with how  
search engine companies are making a buck off of web-based works  
without letting the authors share in the wealth.

I've looked at my web logs and noticed the intense degree to which  
search engine companies dredge through my writings - which are  
explicitly marked as copyrighted and published subject to a clearly  
articulated license.

The search engine companies take my works and from those they create  
derivative works.

The search engine companies don't ask my permission. Rather they  
presume that they have the right to create these derivative works  
unless I create an explicit denial via a robots.txt file.

The search engine companies generate revenue by making use of the  
derivative works they have created from my original works.  I, as the  
author and copyright owner of the underlying work, am not given any  
share of that revenue stream.

Yes, I gain visibility because the search engines create means to  
find my writings.

Perhaps that would be a reasonable bargain to make - if the  
opportunity to make such a bargain were actually presented.

But the search engine companies take the position that that bargain  
exists unless the copyright owner of the original work goes through  
the effort to say "no".  That is an inversion of the normal state of  
affairs.

I am increasingly coming to the opinion that some portion of the  
revenues received by search engine companies should flow to the  
creators and copyright holders of the original works that are indexed  
via the derivative works made by the search engines.

How might such a mechanism work?  I haven't really thought much about  
that.  But we know that such systems are possible and exist in the  
real world.  For example we consumers are already being subject to  
actual or threatened fees on blank media and devices that might be  
used to make copies of works.  And the music industry has intricate  
systems to move money from broadcasters to those who created the  
works in the first place (or to their successors.)

Perhaps those of us who write original internet-based materials (e.g.  
blogs, articles, emails) ought to take a page from UCITA-type shrink- 
wrap thinking and have the license on our materials impose an  
obligation to pay something like 20% of the gross revenues arising  
out of their use of any derivatives they make from our works.

        --karl--




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