Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt told an audience in Tokyo that litigation is just part of American life.
“We’re on a mission from God.”
— The Blues Brothers, 1980
Attendees at the Nikkei Global Management Forum received a lesson in how things are done in the United States. InfoWorld noted that while discussing the Google Print project, which now faces a couple of lawsuits over copyright infringement, Schmidt told his audience that lawsuits are to be expected:
“Google has as its mission to organize all of the world’s information. Not everyone agrees with that and in the American legal system if you disagree you get sued, so we get sued everyday,” he said. “[It’s] probably not very common in Japan but it’s routine in the United States.”
Google Print aims to build a searchable index of all the books in the world. Complaints about the program befuddle Schmidt, who sees the project as one that ultimately benefits the world. From Nihon Kenzai Shimbun:
Schmidt sought to defend the company’s plans to build a digital card catalogue, saying the project would increase the chances of books being bought.
“We are building an index of all the books in the world. In order to do that, we have to scan them. Some publishers have decided that’s not OK,” he said. “That makes no sense to me, because most books are not read.”
“When they are indexed, people will be able to go and buy them. We are not allowing end users to make copies of the book, even see a page,” Schmidt said. “You cannot use Google to take a book and make a copy of that. You can use Google to find the book and buy it.”
Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, told the Wall Street Journal that the Google Print idea has been with him and Larry Page for a long time, even before Google was officially formed:
“We actually dreamed of the ability to do this back before we started Google as a company.” It is good for Google’s users, good for the business, it’s fair and it’s legal, he says. “But more importantly, I think it is really great for the world.”
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
