walkman - 4:05 am on Nov 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

>> This is clearly just the frist step. MS is waiting to see how the lawsuits turn out against Google. If books.Google survives (technologically and legally) then MS will do exactly the same thing.

Not a bad strategy. The issue will settle eventually. The judge will make a major ruling and one side will push for a settlement. Not wanting to risk a loss, both sides will sit down and agree to something. Among other things, as part of the settlement, Google must hand to the publishers the digital versions, so they can give it to Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Amazon.com. :)