On Thu, 16 Dec 2004, Steve Thomas wrote:
There's actually quite a lot about this project -- "Google Print" -- to be learned from their own web site:
which may dispel some of the misconceptions I see being bandied about. It also raises some more questions. (E.g. it is not at all clear whether their "print only" policy will apply to everything, or only the copyright books.)
You can only SEE a few pages from the copyrighted books, but can NEVER print ANY pages from ANY books, as far as I can tell.
But also, to keep this in perspective, it may be worth remembering the recent Google stock float, which may have some influence on the timing of this press release and the previous (last week's) release about Google Scholar. Clearly, these things are going to do no harm to their stock price.
As far as I can tell, the timing was based on being exacly one year from our meeting with them when we pitched the eLibrary idea at their headquarters, after which the silence was deafening. . .no replies to emails. . . .
mh