A Few Additional Controversies & Corollary Issues

This blog has been a general overview of Google Books. Since the settlement is over 200 pages long plus appendices and attachments, my project has focused on the main issues and criticisms aimed at the recent settlement and has obviously been much abbreviated. But there are many other facets to this debate and I wanted to mention two before I close my research.

One such corollary issue is the fact that Microsoft is a silent partner to some of the litigation against Google. According to Steven Levy of Wired.com, the New York Law School is one of the litigants opposing the final court approval of the settlement. The major financial backer of the school is Microsoft, who after losing several anti-trust suits in the 1990's has been lobbying the government to rein in Google ever since. So what appears to be an Internet issues group taking Google to task is actually a major business competitor using the legal system to further their own agenda. It is for this very reason that each step of the settlement approval process must be very well researched and investigated, as the far-reaching affects could have implications not yet determined. For more information see Levy's article:
Levy, S. (March 31, 2009). Who's messing with the Google Book settlement? Hint: They're in Redmond Washington. Epicenter Blog. Wired. Retrieved July 5, 2009 from http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/03/whos-messing-wi/.

In a completely different direction is the concern over the quality of the scans of materials. While Google's primary goal is to digitize works to create easier access, many scholars are excited about the preservation aspects of the Google Books project. However, others such as R. G. Musto are concerned about the shoddy nature of some of the scanned items. As a historian who has specialized in reconstructing the destroyed works from the library of Naples, Musto fears that Google lack of quality control is yet another example in a long line of atrocities committed against the world's great works of literature and he fears that scholars growing up in an age of Google will be willing to settle for second-rate reproductions instead of the real thing. His arguments are limited in scope, but interesting and show the depth of interest from all quarters in the success and implementation of the Google Books project.
Musto, R.G. (June 12, 2009). Google Books mutilates the printed past. The Chronicle Review, 55(39), B4. Retrieved June 26, 2009 from Lexis Nexis.