All of these are excellent points.

If Google is convinced this is in the best interests of authors, they should provide them with an opt-in. This could be good or bad for books in different sectors.

Even better, the search engines and publishing houses should get together and decide on some standard metadata format (akin to robots.txt) by which the copyright owners determine whether, and how much, their book can be indexed. Google today - who knows tomorrow? Does Google think it is fair that authors have to individually contact each company that does this, to request their book is excluded?

Is it OK if I stick a notice up in the town hall saying I am going to burgle everyone in town, but people who contact me will be excluded?

There's also Amazon's/Alexa Web Information Service search-related APIs.

Looks like the world of paid-for-access to search APIs is gradually becoming a full-blown marketplace. Who'll be next to enter the fray?

- Mark

Information on the internet is publicly available. Google simply makes it easier for people to find publicly available material. Same for third party apps like Google Alert that allow you to search on a regular basis for certain terms.

Obfusacation may have allowed people to be sloppy with their data exposure until now. But that is no excuse for people being lax with their own data security.

The Internet is built by it's users. The responsibility for protecting data lies squarely with the users at the edges.