I’ve touched on this subject before, but I want to bring it up again today – google has just stealth launched their new Google Print service. No doubt you’ve been to amazon.com and noticed how they publish exerpts of many books on the book’s product page. This is an extension of that notion – Google’s intent is to make the full text of books searchable. I know this is going to sound like hyperbole, but if Google manages to succeed in convincing publishers that this is a good thing, it’s medium term effect on our civilization will be as profound as Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. It’s all about the knowledge transmission folks, doing it in the most expeditious way possible, and this is a major step in the right direction.

Once again, my plea – make your government representatives aware that these kinds of advances are good things, that locking away content behind copyright is a bad thing – it’s impeding progress in the evolution of the information age.

Meanwhile, go read the text of the talk Brewster Kahle gave at the recent Web 2.0 conference and if that doesn’t convince you…..I give up 😉