vincevincevince - 9:49 am on May 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

We see this time and time again.

Making money and being good cannot coexist on any large scale.

If Google were aiming to make books available to those who couldn't get hold of them, and so they scanned them and served their content for non-commerical use, that would be absolutely fine with me and I suspect most people.

But Google want to serve adverts on them, from which Google gets a cut. That makes it infringing copyright with an aim of making personal profit. Perhaps if 100% of the income less costs from ads on the program went to the publisher / author, that would be a nice gesture.

Copyright infringement on a massive scale is something which is here to stay. I just hope it is a cause which can be taken up by a goverment department who give themselves some form of special exemption to do the work. SOmeone who doesn't have to make a profit.