A learned colleague said:
"...Money. Take without asking then settle. Money. Google = Money."
I was chatting w/ an intellectual property lawyer two days ago and we came around to several ways that Google could easily behave more honestly, and more respectfully of other people's rights:
1. They could rig their system to automatically respect Digimarc watermarking, and not copy, display, etc., watermarked photos. But Google doesn't do this;
2. In creating thumbnails, Google could easily degrade the quality of the thumbnails, or put some sort of slug across them, that would remove the economic value of the thumbnails. But Google doesn't do this;
3. Google could easily distribute info on simple ways to keep Google from illicit use. But Google doesn't do this;
4. Google could automatically notify website contacts that Google is taking stuff from the websites. But Google doesn't do this;
In fact, Google's whole intent from the beginning (and in fairness that of many other companies with similar business models) was to massively profit from OTHER people's creative work, without seeking permission, and without paying to use that work.
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