GOOGLE’S IMPACT ON CANADA: SOME OBSERVATIONS

Michael E. Unsworth

Canadian Studies Librarian

MSU Libraries

unsworth@msu.edu

FULL DISCLOSURE: I USE GOOGLE…A LOT

OUTLINE• Google’s Canadian

Operations

• Google’s Philosophy

• Google’s Business Model

• Impact on Cultural /Heritage Industry /Establishment:

– National Digital Strategy

– Google Book Search Settlement

• Privacy Issues

– Google Book Search

– Google Street View

• The Future

GOOGLE’S CANADIAN OPERATIONS

MORE AGGRESSIVE CANADIAN PRESENCEhttps://services.google.com/advertisers/ca/

PHILOSOPHY

“If Google had been a family member in my

youth, it would have been the crackpot uncle with all the cockamamie notions.”

Ron Petrie, " Ready to Go for a Spin with Uncle Google," Regina Leader

Post, Oct. 14, 2010: A3

CANADIAN SUCCESS STORY

BUSINESS PLAN

VALIDATED BY B.C. COURT

IMPACT OF THE CANADIANCULTURAL / HERITAGE

INDUSTRY / ESTABLISHMENT

NATIONAL CANADIAN DIGITAL STRATEGY:

GOOGLE’S VIEW

BUNGLING OF THE PURCHASE OF “PAPER OF RECORD”

NET NEUTRALITY BACKSLIDING

CANADIAN FEARS ABOUT GOOGLE’S STANCE ON DIGITAL

STRATEGY

NATIONAL CANADIAN DIGITAL STRATEGY:OTHER PROPOSALS

GOOGLE BOOK SETTLEMENT

GOOGLE BOOKS:PUBLIC DOMAIN

GOOGLE BOOKS: PUBLIC DOMAIN

GOOGLE BOOKS:IN-COPYRIGHT (1)

GOOGLE BOOKS:IN-COPYRIGHT (2)

COPYRIGHT IS THE ISSUE

REACTIONS IN CANADA

1. It violates a number of international intellectual property law and also trade agreements. Most grievously, it replaces a right to reproduce with a “right to remuneration

2. It wrongly included Canadian authors in the settlement. Canadian copyright law differs substantially in a number of areas

3. It “does not account for the reality of Québécois and Canadian French-language authors among the Author sub-class.”

4. It did not represent the interests of Canadian academic authors who generally value the public’s access to works over monetization

PRIVACY ISSUES

GOOGLE BOOK SETTLEMENTGoogle would

have “unprecedented power to observe and record reading practices in a manner that has never before been possible.”

STREET VIEW

STREET VIEW

STREET VIEW

• “…our experts found many instances of personal information … collected in Canada by Google…I consider the matter to be well-founded and still unresolved. [original emphasis]

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

END