The Google Book Search Settlement: ‘The Devil’s in the Details’ by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Nov 3)
Barbara Quint has the full story on Google's agreement with writers publishers for Google Books.
Some figures:
+ Google Books has 7 million digitized books
+ 20,000 publishers provided 1 million of those books
+ public domain 1 million
+ 4 to 5 million in-copyright
What the public will see
+ "Preview views, similar to the blocks of contextual displays offered for much of the publisher partner content and encompassing as much as 10%–20% of content or 4–5 page displays, would become the default display for books in-copyright but out-of-print."
+ "Books that were in-copyright but in-print could receive the same preview treatment, but only if the publisher or author rightsholder approved."
Arrangements for institutional access by universities. Different still for public library with dedicated computer.
There is much more detail in the article for those who have a vital interest in the settlement.