Google Books – I Don’t Think I Have A Problem With All This

2009-10-22

So Google has been, and is being, sued by a whole bunch of writers for scanning their books into the Google database. And now a whole bunch of Chinese authors are joining in. I sort of get that, but not entirely.

I have looked at the description of the settlement agreement on the Google web site. It's rather complicated, since there are several categories of works involved.

I can't really figure out what will happen under the new system. At the moment, Google does not allow folks to read entire copyrighted books online. The book is either in the system for text search and purchase options, or at the most there are page excerpts to enhance the whole system, something that Amazon has been doing for years. Moreover, the excerpts are not made available without the consent of the publisher.
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