This is a question that Madeleine would have to look into, but I wanted
to address the whole list because I expect that many of you might be
intrigued by the idea like I am. Some years ago there was a lot of
discussion in the news about Google Books because of the copyright
holders being aghast at the possibility that Google was about to make
millions of copyrighted books available to everyone. At the time I
mentioned on this list that Bookshare should already have access to
them. As I understood the copyright law and as I still understand it
Bookshare should be able to just acquire those millions of books without
having to get permission from anyone. I think the number of books was
something like nine million. At the time Pavi was the volunteer
coordinator. I think that in the line of Madeleine predecessors she was
about the third back in line. She answered my comments with the
statement that Bookshare was in talks with Google about that very thing.
Oh boy! I thought. The Bookshare collection could grow by millions of
books at any time! Well, that was a number of years ago now and I have
heard absolutely nothing about it from any source, Bookshare or
elsewhere. So I am now asking about it. Is there any chance of Bookshare
getting hold of those millions of Google books or not? I would add that
if it ever happens the volunteer program would quickly disappear. If
publisher quality books make it hard to find something to scan just
think what the influx of the entire Google books collection would do.
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