Google Wants All the Books

Beyond dominating email, searches, advertisements, blogs (this one included) and taking out newspapers nationwide, Google now wants all the books.

Google wants to scan a copy of every book every written in every language wor

Image via CrunchBase

ld wide. Sound crazy... yes. Is it possible... maybe. Google wants to create a digital bookstore where every book can be accessed electronically anywhere in the world via internet.

Since some of these books are legally copyrighted, Google has offered to give authors a sort of down payment for the rights to their material. Google would also charge users a set fee to access copyrighted material and would receive a portion of that fee, similar to royalties.

Though the scope of scanning all the books is massive, the craziest part is that Google has attempted to contact every author worldwide to gain permission to scan the material. Google has a direct-mail campaign to reach copyright owners. Google has created a Web site about the settlement in 36 languages, and are spending about $7 million in advertising in traditional media outlets worldwide to notify people.

According to the New York Times, this is "among the largest print legal-notice campaigns in history."

So

what happens if Google actually succeeds. First, it would take a lot of time to hear back from authors. Second, even if Google did get permission to scan every book, there's the actual physical process of scanning books. Just imagine the storage space and organization necessary to keep track of everything. It's mind blowing.

Also, what happens to your local library or Amazon.com when you can get any book on the internet, either for free or for a modest fee? On the bright side, imagine studying a text or foreign language, and being able to read it in its original form. The academic research element would be amazing.

The scope of the project, however, is so large with so many complex legal issues, it probably won't happen any time soon.

But as one article said, scope has never stopped Google from attempting things before.