A story from Wired on Amazon's Search Inside the Book.
Also talks about the Million Book Project I mentioned before.
Since only a small fraction of all books in libraries are in the public domain, there are significant legal problems with making a comprehensive digital library. But, on the other hand, only a small fraction of those books still under copyright protection are still in print. Perhaps something like the Public Domain Enhancement Act is needed. This expires the copyright after a period of time if no effort is taken. This would move the majority of out of print texts into the public domain, where they then could legally join a digital library.
Posted by boss at October 28, 2003 06:09 PM