Comment Re:So what (Score 3, Insightful) 139
Well they've done 95% of the work required to make the books available to everybody.
Perhaps they could be persuaded to do the last 5% after some competitive advantage latency?
If I had to choose between preserving the physical book and allowing access for a billion people, I would sacrifice the paper.
"It belongs in a museum" is really dated and felt to be wrong today.
Why isn't anybody else making these books available? That's the bigger question.
Granted, modern Copyright Law is ruinous to society.
The Google Books project has many of the older ones. There is no moral case against duplication for books that are impossible to purchase but still "protected" by Copyright.
I would like to know the average price of these books. If they are $7 that means something very different than $700.