At 04:17 PM 2/29/2008, Barry Gold wrote: >Google will _make_ it their business, in one of several ways. One option, of >course, is the courts. Their pages are copyright (at least, the logos and >layout are, and I suspect a compilation copyright would apply to the >information). Read up on "derivative works".
Google is too smart to pursue such a suit. First of all, it'd lose. A window with two things in it -- a notice and a Web page -- is not a derivative work any more than a desktop with two windows on it, or a framed Web page, or for that matter a shop window with two books in it, is. Secondly, Google is not in the business of harassing or antagonizing ISPs and would be ill advised to do so. ISPs are their customers and their way of reaching the rest of the world. Google -- which wants to avoid becoming an ISP itself -- needs them as allies. Thirdly, Google would lose a big advantage if ISPs were required to allow P2P. Right now, Vuze, Inc. is trying to compete with YouTube without buying the sort of pipes that Google can afford. It's doing this by stealing the bandwidth from users' ISPs. If ISPs are required to allow this theft, Google loses its edge. Finally, Google has more important fish to fry. It needs to fend off Microsoft. --Brett Glass
