Google brings out-of-print books to the masses.
Google will make some 2 million out-of-copyright books that it has digitally scanned available for on-demand printing in a deal announced Thursday. The deal with On Demand Books, a private New York-based company, lets consumers print a book in about 10 minutes, and any title will cost around $8.
The books are part of a 10 million title corpus of texts that Google has scanned from libraries in the U.S. and Europe. The books were published before 1923, and therefore do not fall under the copyright dispute that pits Google against interests in technology, publishing and the public sector that oppose the company’s plans to allow access to the full corpus.
Many have not been pleased with some of Google’s recent tactics, but this is a good thing for everyone. Anything that expands access to books and information is a good thing.
