101 "Ask yourself, who is opposing the settlement?" Platt said. "These are all competitors of Google, which did what they didn't do and negotiated an agreement with us -- an agreement that is not exclusive, I might add."
Fight Over Out-of-Print Books It is interesting that such a fuss would be kicked up over an agreement that largely covers books that have been out of general circulation for some time, Eric J. Karson, associate professor of marketing Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.with Villanova School of Business, told the E-Commerce Times. "Most of what Google is digitizing now is out of print and inaccessible to most people -- not to mention, off their radar. Funny that now there is a fight over doing it," he said. The sad part is that no one even knows whether there is any positive revenue associated with these "long tail" types of publications, he added. To be sure, Google is not approaching this endeavor from an entirely altruistic standpoint, Karson pointed out. "I believe competition is always good, but might it be more important to broaden the access to all work? Is Google doing this because they think they can profit from it, or because they can? To some extent, I think it is the latter." A collective might be one possible happy compromise, Karson said. "These digital rights -- and potential but unlikely profits -- can be shared to further the goal of universal access to published works," he concluded.
Villanova School of Business 2009 Media Report