Coolfer doesn't spend too much time with Google's copyright issues. There are a hundred and one other blogs for that. Today's Wall Street Journal op-ed, "Google Serach: 'Copyright'," is worth quoting, though. Google is now a major part in the music industry's hopes to nuture new revenue streams. That fact, combined with the influence of the WSJ, makes this worth mentioning.

Here are the middle paragraphs of the piece. It is preceded by an explanation of Google's position on fair use.

"But whether Google produced economic benefit to the copyright owner is for the owner to decide, not Google. Google claims 'a legal safe harbor' from copyright infringement under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows Internet firms to provide a thumbnail of copyrighted material. The firm also asserts a right to reproduce and distribute intellectual property without permission as long as it promptly stos the trespass if the copyright owner objects. That's like saying you have the legal right to hop over your neighbor's fence and swim in their pool -- unless they complain.

Google and YouTube claim it's impossible for them to chase down permission from tens of millions of video and printed-word copyright owners. Hey, this was their idea; it seems like a $150 billion, smarter-than-everyone company should be able to figure out how to police its Web site."

The WSJ's advice to Google is to "steer clear of this expensive legal thicket" and accellerate its deal making with content owners.