Rapaire -

The copyright thing seems to be only part of the big puzzle. Google expected, one presumes, complaints from copyright holders, and some early reports promised strict observance. There was some uncertainty about what they meant by "strict observance" since they mumbled things about wanting to archive everything - open source or copyrighted; but they promised to withhold distribution for anything where restrictions were appropriate.

Part of the originally announced plan was that they'd give an archive its own copy of anything they digitized, and the libraries/archives could decide how to use it for their own purposes.

Some reports since the first anouncements say that the biggest roadblock they've hit is unrelated to copyright but is instead just with libraries/archives themselves not wanting to share - or just not agreeing with how the "sharing" will be done. There probably is a valid rationale, but it is a bit puzzling, and seems to vary from library to library.

Of course they're not really telling the whole world what kinds of negotiations they're into; so also of course everybody's making wild guesses. The few seemingly authentic "explanations" from Google seem to be all of the kind where "the lips move but but we can't tell what you're saying." 'Makes one think they're running for office.

John