Documentary throws the book at Google scanning project | Internet & Media - CNET News

abernard102@gmail.com 2013-01-29

Summary:

"The most arresting moment in 'Google and the World Brain,' Ben Lewis' thoughtful new documentary about the search giant's effort to scan all the world's books, takes place not in Mountain View or a courtroom but rather a monastery high above Catalonia in Spain. The film's globetrotting crew is interviewing Father Damiá Roure, who runs the library at the Benedictine abbey of Montserrat, about what happened when Google came to digitize the library's collection. Roure speaks happily of the Googlers' visit, explaining that their efforts allowed the monks to bring their collection -- which dates to the library's founding in the 11th century -- to the wider world. As he finishes speaking, a filmmaker just out of the frame asks about what else Google might do with the information found in those books. What if, she asks, Google wanted to sell the information they had scanned in those books? Should the monks get a cut of the sale? Is Google's project fair to the library? The monk's face goes blank, and for several agonizing seconds we watch as he works through the implications of the filmmaker's question. A flash of doubt crosses his face -- has the search giant put one over on him? Eventually Roure says he can speak only to the book-scanning effort, and not to its fairness. The documentary cuts away. The monk's mixed feelings about the book-scanning project are mirrored by many interviewees in the 89-minute documentary, which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival. And while the film contains much hand-wringing about whether a corporation should be able to own the world's knowledge, it also offers a relatively straightforward account of the Google Books project and the legal case against it..."

Link:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57565923-93/documentary-throws-the-book-at-google-scanning-project/?ttag=gpwl

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.business_models oa.licensing oa.comment oa.copyright oa.libraries oa.books oa.litigation oa.librarians oa.digitization oa.film oa.google.books oa.authors_guild oa.goggle.settlement oa.documantary oa.libre

Date tagged:

01/29/2013, 12:22

Date published:

01/29/2013, 07:22