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The controversy promises to erupt on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the New York Public Library's Celeste Bartos Forum, when the debate will be joined by members of the guild, the publishers' association and Google. Also in the fray will be Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine, and Paul LeClerc and David Ferriero from the library (which is participating in Google Print).

But as I argued in a version of this column in The International Herald Tribune last month, contention is commonplace during eras of technological change. When Defoe and Addison were demanding consideration in London 300 years ago, the right to "copy" or publish any book was held not by the author but by members of London's Stationers' Company - booksellers and printers - who held a monopoly on that right in perpetuity. That seemed reasonable during the century after the introduction of the printing press and the considerable expenses needed to print, distribute and sell a book to the small literate public.

But by the beginning of the 18th century, printing was becoming less expensive, international and provincial publishers were offering competition, literacy increased and authors grew in public stature. So over the next half-century, British laws limited the control of the Stationers and expanded the rights of authors, while also putting time limits on all forms of control, creating what became the public domain.

Then came another wave of technological change: the industrial revolution. And similar controversies erupted. Inventions were once relatively immune from copying because of the craft they required; execution could seem more difficult than coming up with the idea. Once manufacturing was mechanized, though, the idea itself could become vulnerable, leading to both increased governmental control and increased industrial espionage. Britain prohibited the export of machinery while the fledgling United States welcomed insiders with information from there.

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