Google backs off on book piracy...

[glamourpics]

Google is backing away from its plan ... which it had begun ... to digitize most of the world's English language books, without permission of rights holders.

The project had been called, "The most blatant [book] piracy plan in history."

Google backed off in response to lawsuits by publishers' and authors' rights groups. Google now says it will only scan and make available works that are out of copyright or othewise in the public domain.

Google's owners have said that their business model is to make available "all information in the world" through Google. Since much of the world's information is owned and copyright-protected, Google's stated business model has repeatedly required piracy, and put it squarely in conflict with the rights-owners.

Google has been actively and quietly lobbying to try to water down copyright protection and rights of intellectual property owners. It is expected to continue the campaign, and also expected to use purported academic and librarian organizations as "front groups" for its lobbying.