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back to article EU waits for wise men to deliver digi-books plan

EU culture ministers have moved to block Google's book scanning juggernaut - by appointing some wise men to come up with a policy. Eventually. The policy was thrashed out by Europe's culture ministers at a meeting last Friday. French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand told Journal du Dimanche that the digitisation of books …

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  1. Ian Michael Gumby
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    Wow, EU politicos got it right....

    I do agree that allowing a for profit company to scan books in a clear violation of the copyright laws and thus by a legal settlement grant them a for profit monopoly is unconscionable.

    No offense to the Goo machine, but were you to plug in Adobe, Amazon, IBM and or Microsoft, I'd say the same thing.

    This is a project that for the price of a B2 Bomber or <insert your favorite high tech military project>, you could have something of a more potent weapon... easy access to knowledge.

    Hearts and minds... Hearts and minds...

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  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
    Boffin

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    ... .Shark Bait, Chum. .....a Gift of Global Operating Devices.

    It is the Book of Future Chronicles which has the Keys to Paths into the Future with Absoulutely Fabulous Tales of Glorious Submission to Passions Desired.

    From such a Cloud Base BroadBandCasting Station would Life and Loving be an Addictive Pleasure and Insatiable Passion in Extreme Gene Meme Mode. And a Novel New SurReal World Service Online dDelivering Virtual Peace Programs for Nations to Practice on Earth.

    Personalised ICT is a Registered Resident Alien Space Program for Humans rather than Humans thinking it is any of their Space Programs. And ITs Source is Immaculate and always at its Best, Red Hot and Too Hot to Handle Alone. ........ Highly Enriched and Stabled for Energetic Use ..... Unleashed for Unabandoned Right Royal Command Performance with Knightly Operations/Silent EMissions in Text.

    Definitely the Spooky Boffin icon for any SkunkWorks Shenanigans is bound to have In-Q-Tel sniffing around for a Gravy Boat .......... "The resulting system is comprehensive and capable of detecting zero day attacks, and generates almost no false positives." ... http://www.iqt.org/news-and-press/press-releases/2009/FireEye_11-18-09.html ........ almost a perfect system then, but with known flaws incorporated. That's an interesting business strategy of zero future value with present catastrophic cost, is it not?

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  3. Tony Paulazzo

    #345823

    >Mitterand said, via the miracle of Google Translate,< stuff...

    Did make me laugh, especially as the EU haven't got a translate page, or a search engine, or, really, any meaningful, presence on the interwebs. But they don't want a 'for profit company' (is there any other kind?), scanning the worlds book's and placing them online for the great unwashed masses to read, they'd rather setup a commission to see how best to do it themselves (ie, 4 to 5 years to decide it's too big a job, farm it out to some 'for profit company' who will then charge the masses to view any of it).

    Google may be the devil (I don't think so), but Google Earth (free), Google search (free), Google News (free) (Google Pack (inc anti spyware & assorted crap - free), Google Mail (free), Google Books (copyright free versions - free), Google crippled Usenet (free).

    Microsoft, paying Murdoch for news on Bing, MS Earth (free), MS Live... sorry, think I threw up a little... (actually used Bing on clients pc when I can't be bothered typing in the google address and it does work a lot better than they're previous effort).

    Crap, forgotten my point, but rest assured I had one.

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  4. Matthew Collier

    @Tony...

    ....I suspect your point was going to be that the EU will mull over this, and take a very long time, and in the end farm it out to a "for-Profit" company after all. That may be so, but, the real issue is the copyright grab, not so much the making money, part, IMO.

    You would hope the EU, regardless of who does the work (if any), and regardless of charging mechanism (if any), will keep the copyright un-stolen.

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