GooglePrintThis

The situation with GooglePrint and the Author’s Guild is that the AG is upset over Google’s use of copyrighted works without the author’s permission and is suing for damages resulting from the infringements on individuals’ works. Google is putting portions of the works in digital form for users to search through, but will not put the entire work in the database without the author’s permission. According to a CNN article, authors are able to opt out of their works being put in the database, but the AG claims that this is inappropriately “switching the burden of upholding copyright from infringers to copyright holders.” I agree with Google in that they are doing a good thing by making information accessible to the public. I also think that copyright laws are a bit strict depending on the type of material it is covering, but that does not give Google the right to make it available in digital form without permission from the author. If authors are willing to allow Google to incorporate their work into a database, then they should be allowed to do so because it is helpful, but Google isn’t above the law and a copyright is a copyright