The search leader has made it clear that it wants to index all of the works in print, including copyrighted works. Under Google’s plans, web users would be able to view snippets of the contents of copyrighted works, in a similar way that Amazon enables visitors to browse portions of selected titles.
However, Amazon and others have obtained permission from publishers and authors before allowing access to selected sections of books and most of the books on the site do not have such access.
Yahoo and Microsoft support a project called the Open Content Alliance, a project which will users to browse contents of copyrighted works for which permission has been granted by authors and publishers, while major publishers have also launched their own online browsing projects.
The Google project, however, is the most far reaching and intends, with the aid of major US libraries, to encompass all published works, including those still in copyright.
