submitawebsite - 4:28 pm on Sep 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

Well, it seems like there are two essential questions-

Will Google redirect people who want to get copyrighted books to websites where they can order them, or will Google Print have a pay service where you can download the entire book directly from Google? The first option is sound provided that only small portions of the actual text are used, while the second option seems like a risk for piracy and copyright infringement if improperly implemented.

The second question is how will the royalties filter down? If the first option is the one that Google will be using for Google Print, then it's a moot question, since publishers and agents usually negotiate royalty percentages for online book stores that Google would probably direct the potential customer to.

If Google opts for the second choice, then does a royalty fee go directly from Google to the author? Or does it go from Google to the publisher to the author? Because if it's the second option, that would reduce royalties for authors even further. Maybe the conerns on the end of the author's guild stems fromt the fact that they think Google might not pay royalties to either the publisher or the author, allowing Google to make pure profit off of someone else's work.

Either way, with the advent of Google Print (IF it goes active), many publishers would need to renegotiate contracts with their authors, if the authors or publishers can even maintain control over their copyrighted works.