As far as card credit debt reduction strategy citi student credit card cash international loan payday services compare credit card offer card credit gas station…

But then later I read that someone at the Guild seemed to cheer on Yahoo’s efforts to scan public domain works.

My guess now is that they really believe their own story: that Google is making money off them. That Google is also making them money is irrelevant to them. They want both sources of income tapped. I guess.

Google print could be a tremendous benefit for allowing individuals to conduct more effective research via the web. Researchers buy books by the carload… they just need to know which book to buy and Amazon cusrtomer reviews don’t come close to helping with that type of search.

Authors, librarians, publishers and other parties with a versted interest in monetizing the printed word are re-inventing Emily Litella for a whole new generation… only the forgot the classic stinger: “Oh they want to help you find the text in my/our book(s) and then you might buy it or be able to read the words after it’s “out of print” and I’m dead… NEVER MIND.”

You, David, are on eof the few bloggers that want to scratch off the crap over the veneer of this issue and think about the potenital social benefits behind this project… which will be funded by Google without asking for public funds.
It’s a great deal for society to have this new search functionality and “fair use” needs to be protected. We need to have our right to know protected and not to be channeled into a “pay-per-use” scheme for research and investigation. I’ll pay when there’s a real value add but not for an intellectual protection scheme that reverses centuries of common law practices.

Amazing how the Authors’ Guild, and the Publishers’ Association happen not to mention that the database would be for finding stuff, not downloading stuff. (Although an obvious pay-for-print-on-demand distribution deal with the Publishers is an obvious business venture, with money to be made for everyone concerned.) Last time I checked, finding stuff was fair.