Changing The Future of Reading

Annalee Newitz explains why the Google Books Settlement has to be evaluated as a document that regulates libraries as well as a digital bookstore:

Ultimately what Google has done is transform libraries into bookstores. They've done this quite literally, by digitizing the contents of several libraries and turning them into revenue-generators. They want to sell these books; and failing that, to sell ads against them. At the same time, they are already in the process of building a massive, free archive of rare and public domain books. And they're making them available to anyone with an internet connection.

A further, exhaustive list of media links and references is collected at the Google Book Settlement Bibliography.