Blayne Sucks

There is a very good New Yorker article about Google’s Book Search feature. I found this through Michael Geist. As with most New Yorker articles, this is a bit long, but very informative. I highly recommend reading the whole thing if you are at all interested in copyright issues or Google.

One of the most important things that doesn’t get covered until somewhat late in the article is that whatever happens here will be established as a precedent for future cases. If there is one thing about the combination of technology and law that trumps all others it is the vast difference in speed between the two. Technology is an ultra fast moving industry. The US legal system moves at the pace of a wounded snail. Thus, when big cases like this come up it is crucial to have them decided fairly. It would take generations of technology to overturn a bad legal precedent.