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31 Aug 2006
Starting this week internet users can download full copies of out-of-copyright books at Google's Book Search site, the search giant has confirmed.
The company said that users will be able to choose from a diverse collection of public domain titles, from well known classics to obscure gems.
"Before the rise of the public library access to large collections of books was the privilege of a wealthy minority," Google said.
"Now, with the help of our wonderful library partners, we are able to offer you the ability to download and read PDF versions of out-of-copyright books from some of the world's greatest collections."
Titles including Aesop's Fables, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Dante's Inferno are available for free.
The books can be accessed at Google Book Search by selecting 'Full view' when performing a search. Copyrighted books are not available for download.
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Project Gutenberg did this long ago
You should really mention the fact that Projet Gutenberg has been making public domain books available since 1971. At a quick glance, Project Gutenberg is far superior to Google's new service.
Posted by: Zoltan 31 Aug 2006
Will business bear the true cost of Google's free book downloads?
Google's decision to offer free downloads of books is a really positive attempt to open-up access to rare pieces of literature, but it may result in a huge increase in corporate print expenditure unless organisations act to restrict the potential abuse of their facilities. They may not have to pay outright for the book, but unless they're intending to read it on the screen, the true cost to users of the service will be printing out the free PDFs. The majority of printers they use at home will prove to be too expensive and slow for such bulk print jobs, so it stands to reason that people will try to print them out on the faster devices they use at work - at the expense of their employers. We all know that corporate print facilities are often used for non-business purposes, be it employees producing invitations to birthday parties or printing holiday photos on the cheap, but Google's announcement has the potential to have far wider implications for corporate print budgets. Using network print management software can help organisations to provide rights-based access to print facilities, controlling the types and volumes of materials employees can produce and providing an audit trail of activities in the process. According to Gartner, print accounts for between one and three per cent of a company's revenue. Surely that's reason enough to keep it under control? Chas Moloney Associate director of marketing Ricoh
Posted by: Chas Moloney, associate director of marketing, Ricoh 31 Aug 2006