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.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I couldn’t figure that one out, either.<\/p>\n
While this move may help staunch the bleeding, I have some concerns.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n