Peter Brantley in Huffington Post: Google Books – Right Goal, Wrong Solution

Open Book Alliance co-founder Peter Brantley authored a column on Huffington Post last week that argues that the Google Book Settlement, while laudable for its intention to digitize our cultural knowledge, is too important to be left in the hands of one company. Read the whole column here.

Peter points out that the U.S. government has a long history of getting involved in ensuring that the competitive playing field is level, citing the U.S. Copyright Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act.

In Peter’s words, “…it is the very enormity of the issue that demands it be deliberated publicly, not haggled over privately. The world of information has changed dramatically since the days of Standard Oil, but not so dramatically that we should discard our civic foundations for the sake of one company’s good idea.”