Is Google Evil? Essay -- Legal Case Monopoly

Google has proposed an agreement with representatives of authors and publishers to host a massive digital library. This library will consist of mostly books published in the United States. Google will make digitally available new and old books. This catalog will include books that are no longer in print and â€Å"orphan† texts (books where the copyright owner is unknown or contact information is unavailable).5 The texts will be available through search engines, for individual sale as electronic-books, and with database subscriptions. If the Google agreement is approved by the Justice Department, ethical issues would come into question. The issues addressed in this paper include whether the agreement creates a â€Å"legally sanctioned cartel for digital book rights†4 and if the public benefits outweigh the monopoly consequences. Google has the network, storage, man power and funding to make this digital library a possibility, yet is this justification enough to give one company so much concentrated power over information access? Using the utilitarian approach, arguments both for and against the Google library agreement can be supported. First the audience should be established. Authors and publishers could be financially affected by this agreement. They are represented as a whole by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Both groups are working together to ensure that writers are not under compensated by Google and that publishing prices do not become too high. The Google company and its competitors are directly affected by the outcome of the agreement. Google will take on a huge expense in hopes to gain a reasonable profit. Competitors with equivalent capabilities, such as Microsoft and Amazon, have not expressed ... ...t there is no immediate need to settle for the current agreement. The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers should take time to incorporate preventative measures in the agreement. Given the substantial impact the digital library would make time should be taken to re-discuss terms of usage, include amendments and restrictions. References 1. E. HARRIS and R. JAMES, ENGR 482 Class Notes, Texas A&M University (Fall 2009). 2. HARRIS,PRITCHARD, RABINS, â€Å"Engineering Ethics†, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, Belmont (2009) 3. J. E. VASCELLARO and J. A. TRACHTENBERG, â€Å"Digital-Rights Signatories Revisit Google’s deal† , Wall Street Journal; wsj.com (October 29,2009) 4. S. SHANKLAND, â€Å"Google’s Digital-book Future Hangs in the Balance†, News.cnet.com (October 2009) 5. P. SCHRANK, â€Å"Google’s Big Book Case†, The Economist print edition (September 3rd 2009)