Philip K Dick vs Google

One very kind reviewer once likened Robophobia to the work of Philip K Dick. It appears that stories about androids aren't the only connection - PKD's work (along with one of my books and works by thousands of other authors) has fallen foul of Google in their mission to control the world's data / make a profit from content provided by other people. In 2007, i discovered that the Google Books project had posted all of Machine Nation online without anyone bothering to ask my permission - kind of important since I'm the copyright holder - and it was a drawn out process involving copyright lawyers to get them to take the work down..

Now it looks like PKD's estate are taking Google to task over their Android platform and the Nexus 1 version of their smartphone, saying that the use of these product names infringes copyright from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where the androids were classed as Nexus 6 models. Seems a fairly obvious link really in the cultural consciousness - but then why should Google go to the trouble of thinking up original product titles when they can simply acquire them elsewhere for free... Isa Dick Hackett (PKD's daughter) says of the case - 'Google takes first and then deals with the fallout later.' Given this case, plus StreetView and the Google Books project, I'd say that seems to be their standard operating procedure. Full story here: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6980043.ece Happy new year, btw.