Search Engines // Current

Goby (GO-be) is a new search engine

Goby (GO-be) is a new search engine that's all about finding fun ways to spend your... more

yepyep
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21 days ago
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Facebook sees ad potential bigger than Google search ads

Facebook's chief operating officer said the social networking company was targeting a... more

knews121
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22 days ago
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Hiring And Perks Are Back Say Google Company Heads

In yet another sign that the economic slowdown may be over Google company CEO Eric... more

knews121
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1 month ago
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Semantic Web Search Engine: the SWSE Mission Statement

I’d like to quote the mission statement from the SWSE homepage, a “Semantic Web... more

VictorGodot
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1 month ago
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Google and Amazon Price Fixing & Content Theft?

Google and Amazon: Making Theft and Price-Fixing the Legal Default
By Alex Green

For the first time in American history, a single corporation is attempting to gain full ownership of an extraordinary number of books printed during the last century, effectively controlling their dissemination by default without the consent of those who still hold valid copyrights. In early September authors and their representatives ran out of time to invoke ownership of their own writing and opt out of a legally questionable settlement. The settlement, which is pending in federal court, reveals Google Inc.'s unprecedented attempt to invert the United States copyright structure and monopolize control of a huge swath of intellectual property.

The current agreement, reached in 2008 between Google, The Authors Guild of America, and the Association of American Publishers has touched off the most vociferous public battle between technology companies since the inception of the Internet. At stake is supremacy in the coveted marketplace of content ownership and book digitization. The Justice Department filed strong objections to the settlement last week, registering concerns that Google has violated anti-trust laws by gaining such broad control without legal supervision. Those concerns resulted in a request by all three parties this week for a postponement of the court’s ruling while they rewrite the agreement.

Online book retailer Amazon.com, Google’s non-profit rival The Internet Archive, Yahoo, Microsoft, and other media companies have joined an umbrella organization called The Open Book Alliance to combat Google’s advance. In recent weeks they have filed a barrage of complaints to the court and Congress. Their appeals and public statements have exposed for the first time large areas of legal uncertainty in an industry known for widespread avoidance of public legal battles and legislative interference.

In their legal assault, Amazon appears to have suggested its own involvement in business practices that have widely been considered unethical and potentially illegal. An Amazon spokesperson told the Associated Press last month that if Google were to gain control of the marketplace his company would no longer be able to obtain low prices for customers by, “playing one publisher off against another." Their statement implies the use of manipulative negotiating practices to receive books at lower wholesale prices than competitors despite the existence of legal precedents that restrict large companies from receiving disproportionately favorable discounts.

The Author’s Guild has also come under fire, with critics questioning the right of an advocacy group to negotiate on behalf of authors who did not seek their support. If upheld, such a broad invocation of representative power by a guild would be unprecedented in American history.

Compounding the problem is the prevalence of conflicts of interest among board members of nearly every party involved in the litigation. One particularly disconcerting example involves the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers which currently has three partners serving as board members or advisers to Google or Amazon, including John Doerr who is a board member at all three companies.

The triumvirate of Kleiner board members also includes former Vice-President Al Gore who is a senior advisor to Google. Gore’s presence is a reminder of the close proximity between the political establishment that first gave rise to broad Internet use and the now-powerful companies that benefited from government encouraged non-regulation throughout the 1990’s and into this decade.

The rise of these companies has created an institutionalized imbalance predicated on the absence of basic legal strictures in the technology sector. Without regulation tech companies have fed a decade-long ascendancy on a margin of profit derived from their near universal exemption from state tax laws...Google and Amazon: Making Theft and Price-Fixing the Legal Default By Alex Green... more