Alliance members fear the Google Book Search Settlement will restore access to millions of out-of-print books and will one day make Google a virtual digital library monopoly.... Google has been scanning the pages of those [orphan works] and others as part of its plan to bring a digital library and bookstore to computer screens across the United States.
In effect, the agreement creates a legally sanctioned cartel for digital-book rights that could artificially inflate the price of library subscriptions.... Google has a big economic incentive to ensure that its online library is widely available... the more people that use its services, including the online book archive, the better. ... But the theoretical dangers these pose should be weighed against the very real and substantial benefits that a comprehensive digital library will create.
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE (AP) Sept 16, 2009. Google Inc. is giving 2 million books in its digital library a chance to be reincarnated as paperbacks. The Harvard Book Store will be among the first already equipped an instant-publishing machine to have access to Google's digital library. For starters, Google is only allowing The Espresso Machine publish from the section of its digital library that consists of 2 million books no longer protected by copyright. Neller of On Demand Books is thrilled just to have the right to publish selections from Google's digital library of public domain books.
The settlement gives Google a semi-monopoly over the digital library and essentially buys the right to circumvent existing copyright law for $125 million.
Google’s plan to establish the world’s largest digital library and bookstore.... The company would grant free access to the full texts in its digital library
Google's decision to feed its library into the Espresso Book Machine... what kind of library is Google actually building?... plans to turn itself into the biggest bookstore the world has ever known.... these public treasures will now be monetized for the benefit of a private corporation
dusty books, tomes tucked into library stacks, open musty archives, The library project. but: "The case presents a tangle of issues: how to create new markets for old books without shortchanging authors; how to nurture new technology without stifling competition; and how to preserve all that when one company -- in this case, Google -- is pioneering the revolution and could profit handsomely" and "may give Google exclusive rights over so-called orphan books" yet "content is going to be unlocked and opened up" but "one company selling digital copies" of those "unprofitable" books
"Google's attempt to transform its digitizing of texts into the largest library and book-selling business the world has ever known... The most ambitious solution would transform Google's digital database into a truly public library. That, of course, would require an act of Congress,... it would have the advantage of ... giving the American people what they deserve: a national digital library equal to the needs of the twenty-first century. But it is not clear how Google would react to such a buyout."
"Approval of the settlement will open the virtual doors to the greatest library in history, without costing authors a dime they now receive or are likely to receive if the settlement is not approved," Google's filing reads. By John Timmer, February 12, 2010, ars technica.
"Determined to create the world's largest digital library, Google Inc...." Google contends the world will be a better place if its electronic library of books is unlocked so everyone with an internet connection can peruse and potentially buy volumes...