[Web4lib] Google stops scanning copyrighted books

[Dale Askey]

Colleagues:

> participants at this discussion, as was Alex MacGillivray of Google. At 
> one point, to my astonishment, Michael Keller stated that he considered 
> the Google project to digitize library holdings to be a not for profit 
> activity. (I don't remember the exact wording, but fortunately there 
> will be transcripts made available.) I don't think any publishers would 
> see it that way. 

Nor would, I suspect, any of Google's major shareholders. This 
persistence in some quarters on seeing Google as some sort of corporate 
benevolence society never fails to amaze me. Given their market 
valuation, they had better extract value from their now 
partially-suspended digitizing activities or we'll be able to add Google 
to the list of Internet giants that stumbled and fell. They can't just 
pour money into a venture for the good of the world without finding a 
way to make a buck in the process.

Dale