Unbeknownst to me, Google made a settlement with a bunch of authors and publishers concerning Google Books Search. Lawyers have picked over the settlement, and they have concerns.
It's complicated. I'm not sure what I think. On one hand, it allows Google to make public all manner of books, including ones where the copyright owner can't be found. Books that until now were just locked away in copyright limbo, no one making money but no one able to use the information in them, waiting until they aged into the public domain (which won't actually happen because of Disney). So that's good.
But now Google has a monopoly on electronic books that have been abandoned. And they get to sell those books online, and put the money that would have gone to the authors into a special trust.
Not to mention Google knowing what we read. I hope there isn't a down side to this whole thing. But this court settlement could be a very big deal. We just won't know for years.
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