What’s scary about Google

Re “Google isn’t the boogeyman,” Current, Nov. 26

In his enthusiasm for Google’s recent activity, Google employee David Eun fails to mention that the company has copied entire libraries of copyrighted material without permission of the copyright holders.

Eun is correct in stating, “We don’t own ... content.” That being the case, Google has astonishingly chosen to distribute copyrighted material that it has not licensed.

Eun writes, “Google gives companies the power to take their own content down quickly and easily.” But copyright law requires licensing before use. Nowhere is there precedent for requiring a copyright owner to forbid unauthorized use of a work in order to prevent such exploitation.

Google may not be the boogeyman, but in terms of adherence to copyright law, Google’s behavior (not to mention that of its army of attorneys and paid spokesmen) has been -- contrary to the company’s stated aim -- evil.

HUGH GROSS

Venice