I’ve always respected Google because they’ve seemed like such a liberal company, especially for one so large and successful.  But lately some things have happened that have made me wonder.

First, I heard about the lawsuit against Google regarding the books they have scanned and made available online without the authors’ or publishers’ permission.  Being a writer, I am in general pretty uptight about respecting copyright, so I was astonished to hear of Google’s bad deeds in this instance.

Next I heard about their plans to raise Google Checkout fees to match PayPal’s.  All along I had thought Google’s goal was to compete with PayPal and give people an alternative to PayPal’s high fees and monopoly-like attitude, so it was extremely disappointing to see that they are raising their fees.

What’s going on, Google?

This effects me in a couple of ways.  First of all, as a writer it makes me not want to trust Google — now that I know about the lawsuit.  Thank heavens I don’t have a book published that Google wanted — because a $60 settlement is definitely not enough for that kind of copyright infringement!

Second, as a small business owner it means I will need to consider alternative methods of accepting payments.  I don’t really process a high enough volume to justify getting an international merchant account, but at the same time the fees that PayPal (and now Google Checkout) charge are really high for a small-time seller.  I’d go to checks only, but they take longer to come and I worry about deadbeat clients writing bad checks — and I can’t afford a check processing service any more than I can a credit card processing service!

I’m curious to hear from readers.  What do you think of Google being the bad guy lately?  And, sellers, what are you doing about Google Checkout’s fees going up?

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