In US we are already seeing MAO's indoctrination when our national media and CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA keep using terms like EXCEPTIONALISM-----those people in our US global hedge fund IVY LEAGUE corporations academic writings are THE BEST. The roll-out of KHAN ACADEMY as earliest online lessons occurred to great fanfare of KHAN as the exceptional teacher. All of this is leading to MAO'S RED BOOK----where all our US 99% of WE THE PEOPLE will be told to adhere and only read from the doctrines of global banking 1% PRETENDING to be pro-worker with MARXISM.
MAO'S REVOLUTION as today's UNITED NATIONS OUR REVOLUTION was always about the global banking 1% gaining extreme wealth and extreme power killing 99% of WE THE PEOPLE---our US 99% black, white, and brown citizens need to understand the POWER OF BOOKS in achieving and maintaining FREEDOM, LIBERTY, JUSTICE, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
We can look at MAO's RED BOOK to see where US MOVING FORWARD will take us----and it starts with creating ORGANIZATIONS AND NGOs directed especially at YOUTH----and it follows by whipping those youth into civil unrest civil war all while PRETENDING it is for the youth's GOOD.
All this violence stems from those global banking OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS 5% ALT RIGHT ALT LEFT civil unrest freemason/Greeks.
Who, What, Why: What is the Little Red Book?
- 26 November 2015 BBC
"Let's quote from Mao" is not a remark that's commonly heard in the House of Commons, but McDonnell said he did so as a joke to draw attention to sales of British assets to the Chinese government. Picking it up, the chancellor replied mockingly that it was his shadow's "personal signed copy".
It's an icon of China and communism as well as a work of propaganda. More than a billion copies have been published, making the book, often wrapped in its distinctive vinyl cover, one of the most widely produced of all time. During China's "Cultural Revolution" it became virtually mandatory to own and carry one.
The Little Red Book - or, to give its full title, Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong - contains 267 aphorisms from the Communist Chinese leader, covering subjects such as class struggle, "correcting mistaken ideas" and the "mass line", a key tenet of Mao Zedong Thought. Included is Mao's famous remark that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".
Originally produced in 1964 by the People's Liberation Army - an early version was titled 200 Quotations from Chairman Mao - it soon became a key feature of the leader's personality cult. The Ministry of Culture aimed to distribute a copy to every Chinese citizen and hundreds of new printing houses were built in order to achieve this. Mao himself reportedly liked its resemblance to books of quotations by philosophers such as Confucius.
During the Cultural Revolution, in which millions were persecuted or killed, owning it "became a way of surviving", says Daniel Leese, professor of modern Chinese history and politics at the University of Freiburg. Paramilitary "Red Guards" mobilised by Mao to purify the Communist Party would check whether those suspected of bourgeois tendencies were carrying it or whether they could quote from it.
As the regime attempted to export its ideas as a form of "soft power", millions of copies were published in translation and sold abroad. It was taken up by Western radicals such as the Black Panthers and passed around as a samizdat text in the Warsaw Pact nations, where the USSR's split from China ensured it was banned.
Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping disliked the book and tried to suppress it, says Leese, but this only served as a kind of "viral marketing". While its appeal today may be nostalgic or even kitsch, McDonnell's stunt may have temporarily boosted its British sales - since his speech, the Sun reported, left-wing bookshops have sold out of it.
Quotations from the Red Book
- "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
- "All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful."
- "A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery... A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
'Arthur Prescott, a middle-age bibliophile who teaches literature at the University of Barchester in a small English town'.
We return to our global banking 1% freemason LITERARY STAR and that novel THE LOST BOOK OF THE HOLY GRAIL. As we stated before the goal of this novel for global banking 1% was creating a fiction where HIGHLY EDUCATED BIBLIOPHILES loving their BOOKS meet with hyper neo-liberal global GOOGLE digitizing starting with the controversy between and allowing an ending that MARRIES THESE TWO OPPONENTS.
We shared that the HOLY GRAIL is not religious---it is MYTH-MAKING used for several centuries by global banking 1% KINGS AND QUEENS as a carrot playing on individual's PASSIONS ----what would make them strive for a lifetime as a goal. Now, back in medieval Europe during the discovery and exploration of America's the EARTH WAS FLAT and those ships' captains did think they might fall off the edge of the horizon. What inspired the risk of death? As we stated tales of CITY OF GOD----or modern days' CA and ALASKA GOLD RUSH-----or FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH ---or today's GMO HUMAN telling us we can live forever with no disease or illness.
This novel plays on our 99% of citizens seeing ENTERING GOD'S KINGDOM and the passion of wisdom as that HOLY GRAIL. If ARTHUR PRESCOTT, the character endeared to readers as being that seeker of FAITH, SPIRIT, SOUL through wisdom of BOOKS says GLOBAL GOOGLE DIGITIZED LIBRARY is good---well, then we should believe this as well.
This is the same societal FADS being pushed by MAO in GREAT LEAP FORWARD----the idea that shedding all that was culturally normal to create that singular source of doctrine---GLOBAL GOOGLE COMMONER CORE.
Review: A book lover searches for the Holy GrailBy Mary Cornatzer
March 03, 2017 09:50 AM
Updated March 03, 2017 10:50 AM
Charlie Lovett collects books, writes books and even got to curate a collection of Alice in Wonderland memorabilia at the New York Public Library for two years, according to his book jacket. He divides his time between England and Winston-Salem, where he used to run an antiquarian bookstore. All in all it sounds like a very pleasant life.
And his new book – his fourth – is a very pleasant book. It offers mystery, a tad of fantasy, a smattering of religious history and romance as it tells the story of Arthur Prescott, a middle-age bibliophile who teaches literature at the University of Barchester in a small English town.
More important for this story, Arthur is a believer in the legend of King Arthur and of the Holy Grail – the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper. Because of something his grandfather told him when he was a boy and from his own readings, Arthur thinks the Grail is in Barchester.
Before too long a pretty young American named Bethany is introduced. She’s there to digitize the cathedral’s centuries-old books – much to Arthur’s chagrin. Books need to be touched, he says, not read online. To which Bethany argues that books need to be shared and that her work will introduce more people to the books Arthur loves. It’s obvious from the start where this romance will end up, though there will be the usual hiccups along the way.
The plot centers around the university’s financial struggles (will they have to sell off Arthur’s beloved books?) and Arthur’s efforts – which have been half-hearted until now – to find the Grail. In the end, there is a code to crack and a secret chamber to find before the mystery can be solved, and if it all sounds like a Dan Brown book or a “National Treasure” movie, don’t be put off. Lovett tells a good story, his dialogue is witty and his characters are engaging.
And then there’s the history. Lovett breaks up the story of Arthur and his quest with short chapters that purport to tell the backstory of the Grail, touching on the early days of Christianity in England, the Norman invasion, Reformation and the English Civil War.
It’s been a few years since I dusted off my history books. My only acquaintance with King Arthur is through T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King,” and my knowledge of Christianity’s history is even more limited. So I have no idea how correct any of Lovett’s history is, but in the author’s note, he gives a good accounting of where he got what bits, which historical characters are real and which are invented.
Book lovers will also appreciate passages like this, where he describes the joy of paperbacks: “They accumulated brown blotches of foxing on their covers and pages and they absorbed a subtle odor that spoke of pipes and damp and long walks in the countryside. Arthur opened to his bookmark, pressed his nose into the book, and inhaled deeply. Yes, he thought, as he settled into his chair and began to read, this was going to be a wonderful afternoon.”
So make yourself a cup of proper English tea, open “The Lost Book of the Grail” and escape your busy life for an afternoon.
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We are not reviewing this book---nor are we picking on MR LOVETT----all our US cultural arts---theater, movies, TV, music, and literature has always allowed only global banking 1% freemason players become STARS-----each book sells global banking 1% goals---as CITIZENS our goal is to educate as to what they are hiding.
This GRAIL story directed at our WISDOM and ENTERING GOD'S KINGDOM citizens deliberately has that RELIGIOUS LEADER embracing our global GOOGLE DIGITIZER----and deliberately creates a story where the ACADEMIC BIBLIOPHILE is made unable to advance his goals without that EVER-CORRECT GLOBAL GOOGLE digitizer. So, we are supposed to place all our faith in what global GOOGLE and its ONE WORLD ONE DIGITAL LIBRARY for only the global 1%. The plots comes filled with SAINTS and HOLY SITES ---the author readily admits is HISTORICAL FICTION ---but the INADEQUATE BIBLIOPHILE ACADEMIC only finds his faith when global GOOGLE leads each step to the discovery of HIS HOLY GRAIL-----now he believes in GOD'S KINGDOM.
GOOD STORY----ALL GLOBAL BANKING 1% PROPAGANDA SELLING THE IDEA THAT ACADEMICS LOVE GLOBAL GOOGLE---BIBLIOPHILES LOVE GLOBAL GOOGLE---EVEN OUR RELIGIOUS LEADERS LOVE THE GOALS OF GLOBAL GOOGLE DIGITIZED LIBRARY.
The REALITY-----99% of academics----99% of bibliophiles----99% of REAL religious citizens DO NOT WANT GLOBAL GOOGLE'S DIGITIZED LIBRARY for only the global 1%.
'The Lost Book Of The Grail' Is The One Book Every Bibliophile Needs To Read This Winter
BySadie Trombetta
Mar 2 2017
Do you prefer pen and paper to keyboards and computers, ancient history to modern technology, and physical books to anything in the digital world? Then you will feel right at home reading The Lost Book of the Grail, the one book every bibliophile needs to read this winter.
In his newest literary mystery, bestselling author and fellow book-lover Charlie Lovett takes readers across the pond on a mysterious, hilarious, and heartwarming search for the one mystical item the world has been dying to find for over 2,000 years: the Holy Grail. Set in the fictional English cathedral city of Barchester, The Lost Book of the Grail follows Arthur Prescott, a middle-aged professor who prefers antique books and ancient manuscripts to people. That is, until the young, tech-savvy American Bethany Davis comes to Barchester Cathedral to digitize its collection, and turns the old-fashioned scholar's life upside down in the process. Soon, Arthur finds himself torn between resisting her modern technology (and her charm), or giving in to the times and letting his own guard down in the process.
But as soon as Arthur learns Bethany shares his passion for Arthurian legend and finding the location of the Holy Grail, he is a goner, and the unlikely duo team up for an even more unlikely mission: to locate the the lost Book of Ewolda, an ancient manuscript about the cathedral's founder that just might hold the key to finding the long-lost Holy Grail.
A fun, literary adventure in the spirit of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Book of the Grail is a wildly entertaining story bibliophiles everywhere will love. Here are five reasons why:
There are a lot of reasons to fall for Charlie Lovett's clever and bookish novel, but the literary mystery at its center will draw bibliophiles in on page one and won't let them go until its resolution. As the title would imply, The Lost Book of the Grail is about more than just a missing magical cup, but a mysterious lost manuscript that may hold the key to unlocking the truth behind the greatest legends of King Arthur and his knights.
Though the majority of the story takes place in modern times, Lovett utilizes century-old flashbacks to lay breadcrumbs for his readers to follow all the way up to the present day. Expertly paced, The Lost Book of the Grail unravels slowly, pleasurably, and with just enough suspense to keep readers turning the pages in search for the missing book, and more importantly, the missing Holy Grail.
2The characters are fellow bibliophiles.Like you, the characters in The Lost Book of the Grail, both major and minor, are serious book-lovers. Not only does the old-fashioned yet lovable Arthur work as an English professor at the University, he spends his free time pouring over ancient texts in the Cathedral, collecting rare editions of his favorite P.G. Wodehouse books, and co-running the BB's: the Barchester Bibliophiles, a book club that involves wine, old books, and reading out loud.
Aside from Arthur, the novel's quirky and tech-obsessed American heroine, Bethany, also has a passion for books, both printed and not. She works as a librarian whose job it is to digitize ancient texts and make them available to the whole world, and she celebrates the fact that books should be a right everyone has access to. Alongside Arthur and the other members of the BB's, this fiction crew in Barchester is perhaps the biggest group of bibliophiles, imagined or otherwise. You'll love them.
If you're going to write a book about, well, books, then it would only make sense to have a few literary references peppered throughout, right? Throughout his novel, Charlie Lovett not only expertly weaves in literary allusions to the legends of King Arthur and the biblical text about the Holy Grail, but he also drops delicious bookish references to everything from P.G. Wodehouse to Jane Austen to J.K. Rowling.
From its first page to its last, The Lost Book of the Grail is overflowing with literary references real book nerds will truly delight in.
4It blends together several genres.At it's core, The Lost Book Grail is a whimsical literary mystery, but the novel is also beautifully layered with elements of humor, romance, adventure, history, and more.
Lovett's unique work combines literary and historical research with classic elements of cozy mysteries, classic love stories, and exciting adventure tales to create a true genre-blending masterpiece. At once funny, heartwarming, and suspenseful, The Lost Book of the Grail has something for every kind of reader, and every kind of book-lover, alike.
The Lost Book of the Grail is truly a book-lover's book, a bibliophile's dream in novel form. It celebrates literature throughout time, from the first biblical texts to the oldest Arthurian legends to the modern English humorists and beyond. It honors books in their truest form — printed — while acknowledging the merits of literature's new digital possibilities. It praises authors, new and old, and glorifies the unknowable power books and reading has on all of us.
But, most of all, The Lost Book of the Grail celebrates readers of every kind, from the Arthurs of the world, who prefer reading ancient manuscripts with latex gloves to the Bethanys, who love their e-readers and aren't afraid to show it.
A novel true bibliophiles will be enchanted by, The Lost Book of the Grail deserves a spot on every book-lover's shelf.
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READ A BOOK! The mantra of these few decades of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA while they defunded, dismantled, created huge dysfunction in our public K-university system. BALTIMORE READS was that propaganda as our public schools were not even allocated school texts----and if they did they were MYTH-MAKING school texts -----there are goals to SMART PHONE technologies besides advancing SMART CITIES DEEP, DEEP, REALLY DEEP STATE and planetary mining colonization-----that is eliminating our US 99% connections with vocabulary-----spellings-----creating the smallest use of words in describing----tied to TEXTING and social media posting. When we started posting on social media we were told by 5% global banking players we were only supposed to post a MEME. None of this BROAD DISCUSSION OF PUBLIC POLICY.
This is a GLOBAL BANKING 1% FAD----the idea that US citizens do not want to read books. Indeed, we do not see people coming to our LIBRARIES-----what LOVETT in HOLY GRAIL novel did was to highlight just this----no one but a few ACADEMICS and RELIGIOUS people even want to look at books in these global libraries. We are a product of US public education K-UNIVERSITY and if we did not have the ability to access all those MEDIEVAL BOOKS---AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT BOOKS----REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA BOOKS----CIVIL RIGHTS REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE BOOKS and all that academic research and data over centuries----we would not be able to discuss today REAL INFORMATION in public policy. Our 5% to the 1% GREEK players went to college----working for their own gains---that is not what 99% of our college grads do over thousands of years. ACADEMICS want to SHARE KNOWLEDGE. 5% and that global 1% DO NOT WANT TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE.
HUFFINGTON POST----raging global banking 1% media outlet would not give REAL polling data.
BOOKS
10/07/2013 08:10 am ET Updated Dec 06, 2017 POLL: 28 Percent Of Americans Have Not Read A Book In The Past Year
According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll asking 1,000 U.S. adults about their reading habits, 41 percent of respondents had not read a fiction book in the past year; 42 percent had not read a nonfiction book.
There’s overlap between the groups — 28 percent of respondents did not read a book at all in the past year, while 25 percent read between one and five books, 15 percent read between six and ten books, 20 percent read between 11 and 50, and eight percent read more than 50.
Not all of the results are disheartening, especially for bookstore devotees, who should be encouraged by the fact that 50 percent of respondents spent time in the past week reading a physical book, while only 19 percent spent time reading an e-book. The complete results are below:
The benefits of reading are paramount, and we don’t just mean to those still in school. Mental stimulation can potentially slow Alzheimer’s, and can actually enhance your memory; Expanding your vocabulary, thereby making you an articulate speaker, is an asset at any job; Reading even helps you empathize with other people, and other cultures.
So what are you waiting for? Grab a book — fiction or non — and get to work! Or, you know, play.
Stumped on where to begin? We’ve got plenty of recommendations. For starters, here are 30 books we think you should read before you’re 30, and 20 books we think every New Yorker (or lover of New York City) should read.
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In our MOVING FORWARD to take our US society to THIS-------where we worship SHIPS OF FOOLS------knowing only what these global banking 1% KINGS AND QUEENS tell us----we must erase all that is our AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT---I AM MAN----WE THE PEOPLE centuries-old broad public K-university education.
THIS HAS BEEN MOVING FORWARD THESE FEW DECADES OF CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA----BUT THOSE GLOBAL BANKING 5% POLS AND PLAYERS WANT US TO BELIEVE IT IS ALL TRUMP'S FAULT.
We had our morning dose of FAKE NEWS CNN-----there were CNN anchor CUOMO-----of raging CLINTON NEO-LIBERAL 5% CUOMO family talking to BEN CARDIN----raging CLINTON/BUSH NEO-LIBERAL/NEO-CON family having spent these few decades lying, cheating, stealing, having nor morals or ethics----no US RULE OF LAW-----certainly no GOD'S NATURAL LAW-----telling CNN viewers that TRUMP is the one doing all of the above.
THE US IS A FAILED STATE WHEN ALL OUR INFORMATION AND PEOPLE ALLOWED TO BE CALLED LEADERS ARE PROPAGANDISTS.
Here we have that global banking 1% BUSINESS INSIDER and what is now a useless WASHINGTON POST printing an article written by A GLOBAL BANKING PLAYER tied to a global NGO PRETENDING to be pushing PEACE
Victor Cha | Center for Strategic and International Studies
www.csis.org/people/victor-cha
Victor Cha joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., in May 2009 as a senior adviser and the inaugural holder of the Korea Chair.
Victor Cha - csis.org
www.csis.org › … › Advancing Social Science with Korea
Victor Cha Senior Advisor and Korea Chair Dr. Victor Cha joined CSIS in May 2009 as a Senior Adviser and the inaugural holder of the Korea Chair. He is also Director of Asian Studies and holds the D.S. Song-KF Chair in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Dr. Victor Cha | Global Peace Foundation
www.globalpeace.org/people/dr-victor-cha
Dr. Cha is senior adviser and Korea Chair. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also director of Asian studies and holds the D.S. Song-KF Chair in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Georgetown University is of course that global hedge fund IVY LEAGUE corporation working for OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS. No REAL information coming from CSIS----------
GLOBAL PEACE FOUNDATION-----oh, really??????
What North Koreans really think of their supreme leader
Alex Lockie
Nov. 3, 2016, 11:09 AM
The Center for Strategic and International Studies's Beyond Parallel released new polls that shed light on one of the most obscure areas in global studies — the opinions of ordinary North Korean citizens.
North Korea's 25 million citizens live under an oppressive, totalitarian government that freely detains or even puts to death citizens that stray from official messaging in any way. Simply listening to outside media not sanctioned by the state can result in death.
But the small survey, which gives a voice to those living under unimaginable scrutiny, reveals what many in the international community believe to be true — North Koreans are unhappy with their state and risk severe punishments to cope with it in their personal lives.
"This is the first time we're hearing directly from people inside the country," Dr. Victor Cha, head of Korea studies at CSIS, told The Washington Post.
Beyond Parallel carried out the survey so that it would present minimal risk to those involved. Ultimately, they wound up with a small sample size that nonetheless conveyed a sentiment with near unanimity: North Koreans know that their government does not work, and they criticize it privately at extreme personal peril.
Out of the 36 people polled, zero said that the country's public distribution system of goods provides what they want for a good life.
Out of the 36, only one said they do not joke in private about the government.
While it may not seem like a big deal to those in the West who enjoy free speech and can readily make jokes about their government, consider this 2014 finding from the United Nations on the state of free speech in North Korea:
State surveillance permeates the private lives of all citizens to ensure that virtually no expression critical of the political system or of its leadership goes undetected. Citizens are punished for any "anti-State" activities or expressions of dissent. They are rewarded for reporting on fellow citizens suspected of committing such "crimes".Beyond Parallel reports that formal state-organized neighborhood watches "regularly monitor their members" and report any behavior that deviates from what the state deems appropriate.
The picture painted by Beyond Parallel's research paints a picture starkly in contrast with the images we see flowing out of North Korea's state media, which usually feature Kim Jong Un smiling broadly while touring military or commercial facilities.
The US and international community have long tried to lobby North Korea's greatest ally, China, to exert some influence on the isolated dictatorship to ease the suffering of the North Korean people, and protect the region from Pyongyang's nuclear belligerence.
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The war between JOCKS AND NERDS is thousands of years old-----if 99% of US WE THE PEOPLE do not stop these kinds of tensions-----all 99% of citizens--black, white, and brown citizens---will be GREAT BIG LOSERS. Our lovers' of books and wisdom KNOW where MOVING FORWARD GLOBAL GOGGLE DIGITAL LIBRARY for only the global 1% AND GLOBAL COMMONER CORE for 99% of US and global citizens WILL END. That includes JOCKS, COOL KIDS, MERELY RICH KIDS, LOW-INCOME COMMUNITY KIDS, BOOKISH NERDS-----
If a citizen hates to READ they can consider whether they like FREEDOM, LIBERTY, JUSTICE, PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS----if a citizen thinks people who do not READ are fine to be LEFT BEHIND-----then neither groups understands how all 99% of WE THE PEOPLE are needed to STOP MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE for only the global 1%-----
WE WILL NOT BE READING TO EMPOWER OURSELVES IN MOVING FORWARD FAR-RIGHT WING, AUTHORITARIAN, MILITARISTIC, EXTREME WEALTH EXTREME POVERTY LIBERTARIAN MARXISM.
Things Book Nerds Will NEVER SAY
ThePerksOfBooks
Published on Jan 23, 2016 YOU TUBE
This week's public policy discussions will segue from EDUCATION to TECHNOLOGY looking at what are US DOJ and SUPREME COURT rulings that are MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY GRID including moving all access to REAL INFORMATION to global GOOGLE digital library. These class-action lawsuits tied to WRITERS' GUILD-----have nothing to do with VOICE from 99% of WE THE PEOPLE. Remember, THE WRITER'S GUILD is from where global banking promotes its freemason LITERARY STARS. Of course 99% of citizens included in WRITERS' GUILD are not global banking 5% players----but we KNOW those pushing these lawsuits on behalf of GLOBAL GOOGLE are indeed global banking 1% players.
The GORILLA-IN-THE-ROOM policy issue for 99% of WE THE PEOPLE is not whether GOOGLE can scan----it is the goal of global monopoly on scanning books. No matter how many temporary global book scanning projects try to make it look as if its goals are not MONOPOLY ----that is indeed the goal. The second GORILLA-IN-THE-ROOM issue regarding our online readers and books is the goal of 99% of WE THE PEOPLE not being able to access INTERNET ergo, we will not be able to access online books. Global banking 1% will have no need to write books aimed at our 99% of citizens because our US 99% of citizens will have no money to buy books---no time to read books---and often no ability to read or write.
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND US RULINGS AROUND THESE BOOK COPYRIGHTS WILL BE MADE MOOT UNDER TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT AND US CITIES DEEMED FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES.
News
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Google book-scanning project
Google can continue to scan books over Authors Guild objection
By Grant Gross
Senior Editor, IDG News Service | Apr 18, 2016 8:33 AM PT
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a copyright infringement case against Google for its now 12-year-old effort to scan books and allow people to search them online.
The Supreme Court, without comment, rejected an appeal by the Authors Guild to overturn an October 2015 appeals court ruling finding that the massive Google books program falls under so-called fair use exemptions to copyright protections.
Fair use allows limited reuse of copyright-protected works for criticism, parodies, education, and other purposes. Fair use also allows for people to transform the original content into a new type of work, and that transformation of the printed books was part of Google’s argument in this case.
The Authors Guild had argued that Google’s “wholesale” copying of copyright-protected books would generate profits for the company at the expense of authors. The group wanted the Supreme Court to “recognize Google’s seizure of property as a serious threat to writers and their livelihoods, one which will affect the depth, resilience, and vitality of our intellectual culture,” the Authors Guild said on a webpage detailing the case.
The Supreme Court decision gave authors a “colossal loss,” Authors Guild President Roxana Robinson said in a statement. The guild still believes Google’s effort was “a plain and brazen violation of copyright law.”
Google Books project may lead to a short-term public benefit, but it will come at the expense of the future vitality of U.S. culture, Robinson added. “The denial of review is further proof that we’re witnessing a vast redistribution of wealth from the creative sector to the tech sector, not only with books, but across the spectrum of the arts,” she said.
Google wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The Copyright Alliance, a trade group representing copyright holders, said it was disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision. The high court has allowed an appeals court decision that “dramatically expands the boundaries” of fair use to stand, Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid wrote in a blog post.
The appeals court “held that Google did not need the consent of the copyright holders of 20 million books to digitize those books in order to create a publicly searchable database containing those and other books,” Kupferschmid added. “The court’s holding was based on a dubious finding that Google’s mass digitizing effort was a fair use because the Google Books project conveys ‘information’ about the works to users and therefore transforms the books.”
The Google Books case wound through the courts since 2005, when the Authors Guild first sued Google. The two sides reached a proposed US $125 million settlement in 2008, but a judge later rejected the deal over concerns that it would give Google a monopoly over scanned books.