February 18, 2013

Google Steps Up to Fight Piracy

Filed under: News — admin @ 4:44 pm

I admire this move because, honestly, I don’t know how much money I lose to pirates who steal my books. Just a few months back I had an email spat with some guy who tried to justify his theft of my C programming book because he was using an illegal download according to the “fair use” copyright law.

Yeah, I couldn’t figure that one out, either.

While this move may help staunch the bleeding, I have some concerns.

First, there exists a culture, especially among young people, where they believe the works of others — movies, video, music, books — is free for the taking. Too much free stuff has created a generation of moochers and freeloaders. It would be nice to change that.

Second, and more importantly, I fear this move could be used by corporate bullies and governments to shut down legitimate criticism. Such a thing happened a few years back with the whistle-blowing web site wikileaks. That would be terrifying to know that governments or, more likely, some corporation that’s breaking the law could weasel their way out of it by suppressing information on the Internet using the same technology that fights piracy.

I’d like people to pay for my stuff. Google’s move may be a step in the right direction, but I hope it’s a cautious step.

Link

2 Comments

  1. I’m amazed at the justifications people come up with. At the end of the day, you have something for free that you otherwise would have had to pay for.

    I have a friend who thinks it’s wrong and just doesn’t care, and honestly I have more respect for him than my other friend who has all these ridiculous excuses. If you’re going to do it at least own up to it.
    And I can’t believe we live in an age where a search engine taking steps to prevent this is met with a massive firestorm of hate.

    Comment by gamerguy473 — February 20, 2013 @ 10:24 am

  2. Hear, hear.

    Comment by admin — February 20, 2013 @ 10:38 am

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