Ursula K Le Guin's open letter against Google

There are some who believe that Google making a few pages of their books available online is going to cost them sales.

Google is scanning all pages, but only intends to make a few pages available as a "preview" if you hit them in a search, unless the work is in the public domain. While it might be possible to eventually get an entire book this way, it would be a lot less work to find another way to pirate it (or just, y'know, buy it.) So, those who are concerned they will miss out on sales because of this seem misinformed or overly paranoid.

 

I suspect it's Google's you-have-to-opt-out attitude that irks more than anything else. The authors own these works; Google should be asking them.

 

Of the books I've seen on there, most of them are pretty much complete, whether copyright or not.

 

I know I'm in at least a couple of libraries and I've never gotten anything for it.

 

Maybe it's an Australian thing.

*/ off to Wikipedia /*

Ah yes, it does happen in Australia.

RJ, you need to get your books into Aussie libraries!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Lending_Right

 

^^ Heh. I'll have to see about that.

Well, I registered at the site, but I'm not sure if I'm eligible for payment from Google; it seems to depend on when they digitized the book and if it is registered at the Copyright Office or was just Copyrighted through publication. But I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not sure.

But one interesting thing is that by registering I may receive payments from Google through advertising revenue and Library subscriptions.