Hey 3.5 Readers,
Just came across this article in PC World about a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to not hear an appeal regarding a case Author’s Guild brought against Google regarding their book scanning project.
Here’s more about that from the Author’s Guild website.
Anyone want to try to explain it to me?
Off the top of my head, the idea that a for profit company would be able to scan books not in the public domain and then make them publicly available seems troubling. But I have no clue what is happening here other than it seems like something book nerds such as the 3.5 readers of this website would be interested.
So discuss away, book nerds, and tell me what the heck this is all about. Should I be mad as hell, mildly chagrined, or not give a crap?
Bookshelf Battle 
Google is not making full books available (unless it is in public domain). They only show excerpts from the book. The Author’s Guild doesn’t like that for some reason (probably because Google is rich and they want that money). Where the Supreme Court decided not to take the case it means that the previous court ruling that what Google is doing falls within the Fair Use bucket.
I believe Google also uses those scanned books as part of its searching – like having a huge index at your disposal. It think authors like Margaret Atwood simply object to having their work scanned without permission, for any reason.