Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Home. Again.

Home. Just beat. What can I say...at least all the flights worked out just fine.

Found a stuffed tiger in Michigan that's perfect for one of my piano students...dragged it home on the plane...comments trailing behind. ("Aren't all animals supposed to go in a carrier?" "Will it bite me?" and one person who got huffy that I'd brought two carryons PLUS something else.)

I'll be back in volume tomorrow...in the meantime, take a look at this development Google's been working on for some time:

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1001800-google-given-the-green-light-to-publish-copyrighted-books.htm

Google will be online publishing copyrighted books that are out of print, and paying a fee to the authors/artists. I 'guess' this is a good thing -- after all, it means more access to out-of-print works (which are notoriously hard to find). But HOW MUCH of a fee?

And as an author, I get very suspicious about this sort of thing...

A few years ago, as Daughter #2 was looking at schools, we stayed at a B&B near the University of Michigan.

Who was clearing away the out-of-print books on its library shelves, and having them all digitized, instead. The problem with this is first, what happens if the digitized version disappears? And secondly, did they get permission from the authors? (nope) And thirdly, I LIKE the smell and feel of an old book...and the U of M stacks were full of 'em. I loved going up there late at night and snuggling into a back area carrel, with a pile of delicious old books to pet and admire. Love in the Libray, complete with smarmy music and lots of panting.

I am not sure how I feel about this 'wonderful' new development.

2 comments:

allie aller said...

Cindy, knowledge is power. The more readily accessible information of all kinds is to more people, the better is my opinion.
Plus, the authors and publishers will get paid for books that otherwise would not be making any more money....but the question of how much is a good one.
Overall, though, this development strikes me as a very good thing.
Thanks for the link!

Cindy Brick said...

Part of me agrees with you, Allison -- but the other part recognizes that I, as an author, would have zip power in this agreement. I'd have to take whatever they offered for a fee -- no negotiating, since they didn't ask me for permission in the first place!
Thanks for writing -- and I WILL have some roof photos soon, when Husband takes them. (I'm no good at uploading stuff.)

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