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March 14, 2006

New Google Service Sells Books Online

Google has announced a new service by which it hopes to sell online access to copyrighted books on behalf of publishers, similar to a program announced last fall between Amazon.com and Random House. With Google's new service, users would be able to buy electronic access to the full text of a book, based on terms determined by the publisher, but not allowed to make or save copies of the book. Currently, users of Google's Book Search service can see small bits of books but cannot access the full texts. According to Google, the new program is intended to help publishers increase revenues. The announcement comes as Google's legal troubles continue over its Library Project, a program to scan millions of books, including copyrighted books and those in the public domain. Public domain materials would be available online in their entirety, while only selected portions of copyrighted books would be online. Publishers and other copyright holders have challenged Google in court, saying the company has no right to make digital copies of their books, regardless of how it limits access to those copies. ZDNet, 13 March 2006
Edupage, March 13, 2006

Posted by P. Kaufman at March 14, 2006 11:09 AM