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The original version of the service has been controversial

Google today began offering downloads for non-copyrighted books in PDF format, which allows readers to read the content on an ebook device and/or print the books out. The “full view” option will allow users to search for full-text books on the company's servers. Excerpts and bibliographic information about copyrighted books will be made available by Google – with Google reportedly working hard to make sure copyrighted material is not published. The Mountain View company plans on digitizing more books in the future.

Google is receiving help with the Google Book Search from Harvard, the University of Michigan, Oxford, the University of California, and the New York Public Library. Adam Smith, group product manager of Google Book Search and Google Scholar said that a large number of public-domain books are being scanned with help from the universities and public library. Pieces of work such as Isaac Newton's “Principia,” Dante's “Inferno,” and Albert Einstein are now available for free via download.

Although there are some fans of the Google Book Search, writers and publishers have not been as pleased with the service. Google claims that its completely legal under the fair-use exemption, but publishers believe that Google has no right to store their copyrighted works in the database without proper authorization.

The download service is supported by small, keyword-generated ads that are displayed on results pages.

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Its already been done
By Spyvie on 9/1/2006 2:33:39 AM , Rating: 2
This idea is as old as the public Internet

Project Guttenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page




RE: Its already been done
By Arkham1 on 9/1/2006 10:22:59 AM , Rating: 2
Yep - I was offering Guttenberg texts on my BBS in the 80's. Granted, they were plain text, but hey. Now I wonder if Google will be restricting the distribution of "their" PDF versions. I'm sure the files will "print really pretty like."


Cool
By rockyct on 9/1/2006 12:24:50 AM , Rating: 2
That link isn't working for me, but anyway, this is a nice idea. I'm sure you can find non-copyright books elsewhere, but at least it will be in one place.




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