[jwvgoethe]

respectfully, I posit that the right to information outweighs the potential negatives for which it may be used. If we were to allow what you suggest(cultural sensitivities) to be a legitimate basis for the suppression of knowledge, then clearly we should begin stoking the fires for our book burnings.

[eli]

I think you're missing the point. As was indicated in the article, these maps were already available on the web. And presumably you could find them on, well, google.

This is not a censorship issue. This is about being sensitive to the outcome of your actions. Information wants to be free, sure, but some information is hurtful. And as a publisher you have a duty to at least take that into account.

Perhaps this means not adding documents with hurtful slurs in them to Google Maps (especially in a format that can easily be used to aid further discrimination). Or, perhaps a better solution is ADDING information and context to these maps. After all, the remedy to bad speech is more speech.

Obviously Google should have the right to post the maps and line them up with modern-day Japan with no further context, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

[mattmcknight]

Would this argument apply to a library as well? Would you want this map to be removed from the library? A map store?

Google not like a publisher. A publisher would be the one that ordered and funded the creation of this map.

Google is more like a library with a really fast full text indexed card catalog. They take the content from the publisher. "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"

Google just created a link to this data in Google Earth. You can add context to the data in Google Earth.

[eli]

Well, no. But I wouldn't necessarily want Mein Kampf on the recommended reading list for school chilren. Not without any context, anyway.

[viraptor]

Recommended - no. But the "recommended" part is only in your post. I'm not sure why you mentioned that.

Otherwise - Yes, Mein Kampf is available to everyone who can use internet / library / ...

[eli]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear.

The things selected for inclusion on a Google Maps tab are an editorial choice. I'm suggesting they are analogous to a "recommended book list" -- a subset of all the available books that a librarian has chosen to highlight. Just as being listed in Google's index is analogous to being shelved in the library. (Surely, no one here is suggesting that anything be removed from Google's index.)

Clear now?

[holaamigos]

So if google was around in WW2, and Himmler published a map of where all the Jews lived - you would support the publishing of this map?

This is more than "cultural sensitivies", Burakumin suffer from outright racism, they cannot get jobs, they cannot marry outside their group. Any informational support for this injustice does not get my support.

[carbon8]

If it might incite immediate violence, then there is a possible argument for limiting distribution of something that would cause or significantly aid violent acts. But the threat of violence would need to be imminent for it to be justified. If anything, though, better communication and information availability is often recognized as empowering to populations.