Although this is fine for me, since I don’t like paying money I don’t have to, it’s really a travesty for authors of certain kinds of books whose whole value comes from exactly what Google is doing, obviating pretty much any need to ever buy the book.
How do I know? Because I got search results I could not believe were being made available to me. I searched for some detailed legal issue, and got back exactly what I needed in the form of a snippet from Google from some *very* expensive book. I might have bought the book, for close to $1,000, but now I certainly never need to. Such books were never meant to be read, and Google’s use is precisely what is needed to remove any incentives to buy the book.
Although this is fine for me, since I don’t like paying money I don’t have to, it’s really a travesty for authors of certain kinds of books whose whole value comes from exactly what Google is doing, obviating pretty much any need to ever buy the book.
How do I know? Because I got search results I could not believe were being made available to me. I searched for some detailed legal issue, and got back exactly what I needed in the form of a snippet from Google from some *very* expensive book. I might have bought the book, for close to $1,000, but now I certainly never need to. Such books were never meant to be read, and Google’s use is precisely what is needed to remove any incentives to buy the book.