Google books settlement opt-out? Not for me

A friend wonders whether I'm going to opt out of the Google books settlement.


I'm the cynic, as you might have guessed. I haven't wasted a minute of my writing time on this. In the 1990s, I stood proudly as a long time union guy from a union town (Detroit) with those who refused to allow their pieces in the NY Times archive because we weren't getting electronic rights, or whatever the argument was at the time.

Then I was distressed that a piece I'd written had disappeared from the NYT archives, and from the world at large. I liked the piece. A few years ago, I noticed it was back in the archives. WTF?

I have too much to do to worry about what happens to pieces that are never going to earn me another dime. If Google can get somebody to read 'em, I'm for it. Besides, the free email, storage, software and search services Google provides have saved me thousands of dollars. I don't mind paying for that, if indirectly.

I sometimes wonder whether my partisanship distorts my view of things. Yes, all politicians use selective information to make their case, take things out of context, exaggerate, and so on. And they distort their opponent's opinions and positions, something that's difficult to prove true or false.

But most--unless I'm more naive than I think--don't lie about matters of fact. And it seems to me that John McCain does. And he does it often. And he's taught Sarah Palin, who was emphatically FOR the bridge to nowhere, to do the same thing.

Now, however, McCain is lying about the big things. He told Dave Letterman that he had to cancel an appearance because of the economic crisis. And he lied--he was being interview by Katie Couric!

Call out the guards...