I feel bad for the authors who already have their names in lights (well, ink, actually) because they have to deal with GOOGLE.

DumDumDum...

You see, Google has this thing now, where any book which is out of print now belongs to them. Never mind that the copyright automatically reverts back to the author when the publishers are done with it - now, just because Google said so, every out of print book belongs to them. They can post them online as part of their GoogleBOOKs thing. Free for the public. The author (you know, the guy who wrote the story!) gets no royalties or revenue, because technically the book doesn't belong to them anymore.

If an author (understandably) thinks this is wrong, and wants no part of it, they have to file paper work for every book they don't want Google to have. If they forget one, Google will assume that the book is rightfully theirs, and post it without consent.

You know what? THAT SUCKS!!! The Authors Guild took them to court, but they didn't have the resources to do anything more than force them to make an out of court settlement. Google paid $250 million for the guild to go away and leave them alone.

That's pocket change to them.

Some people think this a great idea. It's giving literature to the masses! Ah... no. That's the way Google justified it.

It's thievery, people! Google is tightening the noose on information every second. They already decide which internet sights are most popular. Which ones come up when you search them. You know what you get when you search www.missflea.blogspot.com? NOTHING! "Item does not exist".

I'm right here, aren't I?

The whole business is clearly a giant property-grab by Google, and just as clearly illegal, regardless of whatever fake "settlement" the Author's Guild has signed off on. Google books should work like this: if you want to be on it, sign up. If you don't, don't. None of this "we're using your stuff and you can't stop us" bullshit.

It is thievery. If it's not, then I should be able to claim each of Eric Schmidt's (Google's CEO) possessions as my own, unless he notifies me in every case, in writing, that I can't have them.