April 21, 2005

Fear of Google . . .

by

The head of one of the U.K.’s most prestigious publishing houses, Bloomsbury, “has warned UK publishers to beware the blandishments of Internet search engine Google.” In particular, according to a Bookstandard report by Philip Jones, the company’s CEO, Nigel Newton, fears “that the project to digitize books and allow the content to be searched on Google could lead to the ‘Napsterization’ of the publishing industry.” Speaking at a Publishers Association (PA) meeting in London on Tuesday to which representatives from Google had been incited to make a presentation, Newton said the invitation “surprised” him. “We are being given an opportunity to undermine our industry,” he told the group. “It may not seem inherently scary at the moment. But my concern is what this will lead to in 10 years. We are opening a Pandora’s Box, and we have no idea where it will lead. We just don’t know, once they have this material, what they will do with it.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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