Google Halts Scanning of Copyrighted Books - New York Times

Google Halts Scanning of Copyrighted Books - New York Times: "Stung by a publishing industry backlash, Google Inc. has halted its efforts to scan copyrighted books from some of the nation's largest university libraries so the material can be indexed in its leading Internet search engine."

This is only one aspect of the awful catastrophy of current copyright protection. It is an example of what is about to happen for civilisation - the owning of culture by business interests. This is a revealed evil that Jefferson tried to stop from occurring but was unable to do so. He rightly understood the downside of copyright protection. He understood that if knowledge became a commodity it would begin a lasting corruption, and an eventual dissappearance. But we don't have Jefferson; we have instead Sonny Bono, whose right-wing friends adored him for the notoriety he could muster in an effort to extend copyright protection for such a length of time that would enrich the some, and ruin the many - shoving valuable out-of-print human knowledge under cover and away from the minds of citizens, simply because there would be no profit in making it available; therefore no reason to expend money to make it available in any form. The extension sought by Bono and the Republican profiteers became the law.