wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

When I find a book on Google books that's under copyright it shows about 8 out of 10 pages. This doesn't seem like a snippet.

See, I don't trust Google because of Smith's answer. Once Google scans a book, the library is hesitant to allow someone else to rescan it for damage concerns, etc.

But Google demands a library may NOT post copies of the scan for the world to see. You have to go to that library's physical site to see the scan of its own book. Smith's answers have all -- in an insidiously subtle way -- acknowledged that.

Internet Archive does not make that demand.

Google Books scans and full-text search of out-of-copyright 19th century works have been the most significant advance for researchers since the invention of libraries. I have saved hundreds of hours of searching through old books and magazines, and have found many references that I would never have discovered any other way. I look forward to Google's extending this capability to orphan works and later copyrighted works.

Google is a private corporation that is in business to make a profit. Google is a monopoly. We've seen this "good will" in the past go bad. Let's not let it happen again.

Many economists have commented on the evils of current copyright laws and the shot-in-foot stupidity of publishers and authors' bodies etc. This issue has attracted particular interest:

''“Being a monopolist” is, apparently, akin to going on drugs or joining some strange religious sect. It seems to lead to a complete loss of any sense of what profitable opportunities are and of how free markets function. Monopolists, apparently, can conceive of only one way of making money, that is bullying consumers and competitors to put up or shut up. Furthermore, it also appears to mean that past mistakes have to be repeated at a larger, and ever more egregious, scale. Consider the ongoing controversy over the Google Print project, which is now relabeled Google Book Search and is fighting to survive the legal obstacles we summarize next. The Authors Guild filed a lawsuit about two years ago trying to stop it; the lawsuit accuses Google of violating “fair use” and infringing upon its copyrights.'' —Boldrin & Levine

Please discuss the unintended consequences of libraries' contracts with Google, ie, the shutting down of the not-for-profit Internet Archive's scanning of books--the second largest book scanning project after Google.

Google's requirements for libraries' distribution of scans are severe; IA doesn't put any restrictions on libraries.