GOOGLE BOOKS

I have to admit that when I'm researching something I love it when a book pops up on Google Books. ESPECIALLY when the WHOLE book pops up. I would buy this said book - I really would - but a lot of times books go out of print and there's no way for me to buy these things! I also love it when medical texts are available on google books. In those instances the books may be in print but they're so much money and all I want is a teensy bit of info that there's no way I'm going out and buying the book! So yeah, I use google books.

How do I feel about my books being on google books? Hmmm. I guess I don't mind. If you go to my website you will find that I have made available all of my out of print books to read in their entirety. Heck, I put a lot of work into those babies! I want them to be seen! I don't really care that much if my in-print picture books are available either. I still think it's crazy to sit around a computer and have story time. I figure if the text is small enough it would just be crazy to attempt it.

But anyway, I just read this:
The Google Book Settlement may be dead, but the litigation lives on..." This was done yesterday, on the 12th. Blah blah blah, the gist was does google's scanning of books amount to copyright infringement.

The Authors Guild said this:“Google’s scanning project has a commercial purpose,” the brief states. “Google undertook the Google Library Project to gain a competitive advantage over other participants in the search engine market, by offering a wealth of content not available elsewhere. Google uses the works obtained from libraries and other sources to attract visitors to its website, thereby increasing its attractiveness to advertisers.”

Enough said there. So, what do you think about this? Is this bad? Is this good? We all know they make money off of it. If they made money off of my book I guess I'd want some of it!