Bloggasm

Google Books, which might or might not be a sinking ship depending on outcomes with copyright lawsuits, has decided they’re pulling Yahoo and MSN down with them with subpoenas issued to both companies:

New developments in online selling and the lawPublishers and authors are taking Google to court over its programme to digitise the libraries of four US universities, Oxford university library and the New York Public Library.

Google has said that it will subpoena two of its fiercest competitors, Yahoo! and Microsoft, for information relating to their own book scanning operations as part of the case. The information being sought by Google includes project costs, lists of books, estimates of sales and details of discussions with publishers.

I’ve always been a supporter of Google Books from the very beginning, and I think they might have a good chance of working out through my limited knowledge of copyright law. If nothing else, they can scan all books in the public domain, and then have publishers submit their books to be scanned, like Amazon does.

Related posts: dear google, American Idol’s father sues publisher