Google Library!

Well, I for one don't see anyone else except Google with the platform to run an initiative this size.

“This agreement expands access to many of these hard-to-find books in a way that is great for Google, great for authors, great for publishers and great for readers,” said Alexander Macgillivray, the Google lawyer who led the settlement negotiations with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild.

Most of the critics, which include copyright specialists, antitrust scholars and some librarians, agree that the public will benefit. But they say others should also have rights to orphan works. And they oppose what they sayamounts to the rewriting, through a private deal rather than through legislation, of the copyright rules for millions of texts.

“They are doing an end run around the legislative process,” said Brewster Kahle, founder of the Open Content Alliance, which is working to build a digital library with few restrictions.

I think its a good thing for people all around the world. Especially those who can't afford quality books which may set you back a couple of hundred bucks a pop or a trip around the world to have an acquaintance with some long lost book.


As reported by: Nytimes