A Legal Perspective: Google Fast Flip

I'm a new aggregator, RSS feed reader junkie. I cannot get enough of the stuff I love. So today when Google quietly announced Google Fast Flip - I was a bit skeptical. In reality, it's really amazing!

Here's what Google has said:

Today we're adding a new experiment to Google Labs: Google Fast Flip, accessible at fastflip.googlelabs.com. Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

From a legal perspective, this new product is ingenious. Part of the problem with Google News is that it's an aggregation service that aggregates the headlines, photos and story line leads of an article from a published website and shares it with the world. The problem is that the writers and publishers of those stories have complained that Google is infringing on their copyrights and taking the "heart" of their story. However, Google has argued that it increases readership to publishers by allowing them to click on links which direct the reader to the publisher's website. There have been some nasty legal battles over content and Google has settled with a number of publishers to license out their headlines, photos, and storyline leads. But I think Google might have found a way around copyright infringement with this new technology.

As you can see, Google has allowed the entire page with its advertisements viewable. Google has stated that it's partnered with the New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Fast Company, ProPublica and Newsweek to provide information. Google and its partners will share the revenue from the advertisements. Google hopes this will allow readers to read content faster and generate greater revenue for ads. By partnering with publishers, Google is combating the base for publisher's argument over Google News. Publishers were arguing that Google hindered advertisement revenue sales by taking the "heart" of their stories and publishing it on their news aggregator, Google News. Overall, if Google Fast Flip catches on, it could replace Google News.

Google Fast Flip is customizable, sortable and easy to use. You can sort news by a variety of topics, by news publisher, by topic or even by just read what Google Recommends. It feels just like a scrolling newspaper! It's really incredible!

What do you think? Thoughts?