I love Google, really I do. I use it all day long. I google myself, my friends, my family, the folks I sell stuff on eBay to (if they live in Beverly Hills or the Upper East Side), potential clients, potential employers, the cowboy who trains reining horses and is looking for an apprentice on craigslist (Howdy Kevin!), long lost ex-boyfriends who apparently have fallen off the face of the earth, joined the witness protection program, or never made enough of themselves to have any google-cred, co-workers (Maceo you look dashing on your Facebook page), basically anyone who am interested in for whatever reason gets the Google treatment. Of course, people aren't the only ones who are search worthy -- inanimate objects, places, ideas, insects (you may be shy Black Widow Spider, but if I see you in my garage or under my stairs I will try to kill you), food, disease (I'm certain I contracted Scabies from a slot machine), movies, song lyrics, well . . . the list goes on and on.
I'm so over Myspace, Facebook looks boring and slightly annoying, I don't text therefore I do not Tweet, which leaves me with Google.
I never resented the fact that Google has made like a jillion dollars, I always considered the free service I received from the search engine a wonderful thing about living in this modern age where information is traded so openly. That is until the day I discovered that my book had been scanned by Google and was there on the world wide web for all the world to see. To be exact, as of today pages 1 through 37 plus the cover and the back are available for perusal.
To other authors this may not seem like such a bad thing as only a part of the work is revealed, but my book is basically a picture book, and my pictures used to bring me income. I have found photos from my book on eBay and scattered across to blogging universe, as they are oh so simply downloaded and saved from the Google books site. So easy in fact, the photo on this blog was lifted and placed in less than 10 seconds. It is one of my favorite photos, a photo I have been paid money for. I believe I received usage fees from the New York Times, and the London Guardian when it was reproduced in their publications.
So you can see my frustration . . . I only wish I could laugh in the bald faced infringement and piracy with the vigor of Nudie behind the wheel of his Nudie Mobile. You see, I wrote a book about Nudie Cohn. He is my idol. A character so famous in his own time, he never bothered to trademark his Ellis Island given moniker. A guy who invented himself, the original Rhinestone Cowboy, and never thought that foreign interests, and Google would dare one day to capitalize on his story, image, and likeness, stealing food from the mouths of his family.
It's ironic, isn't it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony Not the mere inconvenience of rain on your wedding day (Hello Alanis Morissette! yes, I googled it), but that real "live by the sword, die by the sword" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_by_the_sword,_die_by_the_sword stabbing pain of getting royally (um, royalty?) screwed by someone or something you relied on.
I'm not sure how Nudie www.nudiesrodeotailor.com would react to this injustice. I often ask myself "What Would Nudie Do?"
One thing is for certain, he would not have stood idly by and let Google run ram shod over his legacy. Nudie was famous for his generosity and good humor, but he was no body's fool.
I'm so over Myspace, Facebook looks boring and slightly annoying, I don't text therefore I do not Tweet, which leaves me with Google.
I never resented the fact that Google has made like a jillion dollars, I always considered the free service I received from the search engine a wonderful thing about living in this modern age where information is traded so openly. That is until the day I discovered that my book had been scanned by Google and was there on the world wide web for all the world to see. To be exact, as of today pages 1 through 37 plus the cover and the back are available for perusal.
To other authors this may not seem like such a bad thing as only a part of the work is revealed, but my book is basically a picture book, and my pictures used to bring me income. I have found photos from my book on eBay and scattered across to blogging universe, as they are oh so simply downloaded and saved from the Google books site. So easy in fact, the photo on this blog was lifted and placed in less than 10 seconds. It is one of my favorite photos, a photo I have been paid money for. I believe I received usage fees from the New York Times, and the London Guardian when it was reproduced in their publications.
So you can see my frustration . . . I only wish I could laugh in the bald faced infringement and piracy with the vigor of Nudie behind the wheel of his Nudie Mobile. You see, I wrote a book about Nudie Cohn. He is my idol. A character so famous in his own time, he never bothered to trademark his Ellis Island given moniker. A guy who invented himself, the original Rhinestone Cowboy, and never thought that foreign interests, and Google would dare one day to capitalize on his story, image, and likeness, stealing food from the mouths of his family.
It's ironic, isn't it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony Not the mere inconvenience of rain on your wedding day (Hello Alanis Morissette! yes, I googled it), but that real "live by the sword, die by the sword" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_by_the_sword,_die_by_the_sword stabbing pain of getting royally (um, royalty?) screwed by someone or something you relied on.
I'm not sure how Nudie www.nudiesrodeotailor.com would react to this injustice. I often ask myself "What Would Nudie Do?"
One thing is for certain, he would not have stood idly by and let Google run ram shod over his legacy. Nudie was famous for his generosity and good humor, but he was no body's fool.
No comments:
Post a Comment