lucy24 - 9:35 pm on Feb 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

Either way, if Google wants to do business with the world, they're going to have to follow the laws of the countries they do business in.

They already know this. Google Books has stricter access permissions for users from non-US IPs. If you want to look at a book published after a certain date*, even if it is unequivocally public domain in your country, you have to go through a proxy.


* It's a specific year, I just don't remember what that year is. The idea is that the author cannot possibly have been alive 50, 70 or 95 years ago so the title must be PD.