Lessig on the Google-Authors Guild dispute

Lawrence Lessig has come down on the side of Google (as have I) in the dispute between Google and the Authors Guild. Writes Lessig:

I've been waiting to offer my opinion on this whole mess until I've thought it through, I've been reading a lot of other, much more informed peoples' opinions, and this is what I come up with.

First, information is power. If Google does not get this information out, someone else will. ...

Second, it's a fair use issue. Google is not talking about publishing the entire works of a particular author; just a tiny snippet, maybe some bibliographic information, and that's it. Think of a card catalog here in your public library. From the Official Google Blog:

"Let's be clear: Google doesn’t show even a single page to users who find copyrighted books through this program (unless the copyright holder gives us permission to show more). At most we show only a brief snippet of text where their search term appears, along with basic bibliographic information and several links to online booksellers and libraries."

Thirdly, anything that is legitimately attempting to give people more access to literary works is all right by me. As an English major, I plan on using Google Print to search authors past works, find connections I hadn't thought of, and yes, probably buy some books. I'm not going to be reading whole works on my 'puter ...