I do thank the Authors Guild - every year with my dues. This settlement proves their worth in my mind. Yes, I believe Google stepped over the line with in copyright and in print books. But the OOP books - those are an amazing resource that was slowly becoming inaccessible, not just to those who didn't have university library privileges, but to everyone.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I buy a lot of used OOP books. I would say a good half of those have been purged library editions, so even the libraries would not have these books available. (Those purged library editions were often the only version of a book available, as well.) So while Google did overstep (imo) with the in print books, this settlement is, through Google, providing an immeasureably valuable service by giving us back books that would have been otherwise lost.
Readers are indeed the winners with this settlement.
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