As the 2013 Sundance Film Festival begins next week, a new trailer has been released for a documentary called Google and the World Brain. Directed by Ben Lewis, the film will focus on Google’s mission to create a “world library” by uploading millions of books into it’s database. This has sparked controversy with the publishing community who sees the mission as an infringement of intellectual property. It also seems this would give Google the power to strong-arm authors into complying with certain terms.
“I wanted to make a film that alerted an audience to perils, as well as the paradise of the Internet,” Lewis says. “Google started out scanning amidst huge enthusiasm for the idea of creating a universal digital library. Gradually problems emerged.”
While Lewis succeeds in selling us on the subject, we’re hoping the trailer is more of an advertisement than a valid film preview. The clip which was watched somewhat ironically, on YouTube, is over the top dramatic. “Google could basically hold the whole world hostage,” says law professor Pamela Samuelson to close out the trailer. This is the type of thing that provokes true documentary fans into a collective “Oh please!”
“Google and the World Brain” will premiere at Sundance on January 18th in the World Documentary Competition.
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