NPL Publishing Consultants

As you all know if you read my newsletters, Google isn’t exactly my favorite company, and, if you’re in publishing, it shouldn’t be one of yours, either. Here are two quick pieces I did recently in the newsletter about your friend and mine:

Oh yes, I almost forgot Google. Google has determined, after being asked politely to stop copyright infrigement by a number of Belgian newspapers… that it didn’t have to. Apparently a Brussels court decided otherwise. Here’s the brief from The Economist, Feb 17, 2007:

“”A court in Brussels ruled that Google had infringed the copyright of Belgian newspapers by publishing links to their stories on Google News. The case, in which the newspapers argued that the internet company was giving away articles they were charging for, was closely watched by other press proprietors. Google is to appeal.”"

Here’s my take on the appeal thing (again, my opinion, Google lawyers). Google and God both start with Go. This is a clear sign to Google that they should Go and they should Go with God… meaning they only have to follow God’s laws and may ignore secular laws. If it is yours, and Google can use it, it becomes theirs; if it is theirs in the first place, look out if you want to expropriate it.

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Did you know… You can pull up the White House in detail on Google Earth. You can pull up the Pentagon in detail on Google Earth. You can ask for the Vice President’s house on Google Earth and all you get is a pixelated blur. Apparently when a quail hunting shotgun is pointed at your parts, this becomes the one exception to the Google rule. If “they” are bigger than Google, then Google does the kowtowing. So far, Vice Presidents and foreign countries (China). And they do a great imitation of Opie while they do it…aw shucks, dad. We don’t care about profits, Aunt Bea… we are only after world domination, that’s all.