The Argument for Google Print

There has been quite a bit written recently about Google Print, Google’s aim to make all the world’s books – and book content – available online through Google.

A number of publishers ( The Association of American Publishers and McGraw-Hill) have rejected the idea (on a number of obvious, and not-so-obvious grounds) and there is now a suit to stop Google’s plans following a breakdown in negotions between the two parties. The suit is the second in the industry.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has come out with a rather compelling piece (The Point of Google Print) that tries to lay out Google’s argument in light of the current suit:

'Even those critics who understand that copyright law is not absolute argue that making a full copy of a given work, even just to index it, can never constitute fair use. If this were so, you wouldn't be able to record a TV show to watch it later or use a search engine that indexes billions of Web pages.'