techdirt has an interesting blog entry up:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100922/03303211105/google-asking-for-help... ml they point to a google forum where a google employee (sofiaf) has asked for instances where public-domain books are not in full-view, because some entity has claimed some kind of "copyright" on them... the google thread is here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/books/thread?tid=7e2cfafbad4c9065 in both places, i posted this comment:
sofia-
i'm so glad google is finally addressing this issue! thank you!
but let us not be disingenuous, ok? the vast majority of books that are being hijacked from the public-domain are being lifted by a small number of companies. google knows who they are. you don't need us to identify the books one by one, individually.
-bowerbird
another commenter there -- michael ward -- asked for actual examples, and i told him that i would come here and get some specifics from y'all... let's give google lots of good reasons to take out these scumbags, ok? i mean, providing a service by offering hard-copy of public-domain books is _one_ thing, but locking out full-view of those same books is _wrong_... techdirt has enough clout to prod action, and they will be tenacious too, so let's take advantage of this opportunity and strike while the iron is hot... -bowerbird