Slashdot Mirror
Google's Library Up and Running
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that Google Print results are beginning to appear on searches. For
those who don't know, Google has been scanning from libraries from some of the world's
greatest universities in order to compile a freely accessible online library. An easy way to turn up these results is to simply type "book", and then
whatever you want to search for.
For instance, book origin of species will turn up the
full text of Charles Darwin's controversial treatise. 20,000
leagues, Oliver Twist and Pride and
Prejudice and m o r e are all there in full.
It'll be interestin to see how publishers deal with this if demand for these
books declines. In the meantime, would anyone like to point out any good books?" Hopefully, Google can also start to index some books that are being released in the Creative Commons/alternative open licenses.
A lot of these books have been available online (and easily findable via search engines) for years, courtesy of Project Gutenberg and others. Granted, Google gives them a little higher profile, and maybe they'll be more accessible, but it's not like the publishers of Shakespeare and Stevenson are facing something really new here.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Not one of the linked titles contains the full text of the book! Each shows only a few pages.
From the "About Google Print" page:
(you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the titles bibliographic data and brief snippets)
However, it seems to consider every title to be "under copyright". I mean, Romeo and Juliet is centuries old, and surely in the public domain. If it's considered copyrighted, then just about everything will be.
Anyway, if you want free e-texts, Project Gutenberg is a great resource.
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
http://print.google.com/print?id=LDrPI52uFQsC&prev =http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3D019283438X&pg =3&sig=stLCn4Uuh5uCKQVXgVetpjRD5T8
google the ISBM number of the book
If you go to Google and read about this project, you'll quickly notice that unless the books are in the public domain, you won't be able to read the entire book online. This purpose of the project is the enable people to quickly _find_ books, not read them entirely online. Once you've found a desired book by using Google, you'll most likely have to go to a library and check the book out or buy it...
Probably because it isn't just called the Holy Bible in the collection.
g +James&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=book+Kin
However, I'm pretty sure you were just trolling.... Otherwise you would look for a specific VERSION of the bible!
Thanks for the info, but he wan't trolling. It was one of the first books I checked for and amazingly "bible" and "the bible" do not yeild the desired results either. It's a little surprising to have to be so specific for this particular book.
TW
Moreover the calculus book requires specialist typesetting, less of a problem nowadays but the average printing house isn't set up for printing sigmas.
That's why most textbooks nowadays are formatted using LaTeX. Besides, most printing houses for textbooks require camera-ready, so it's the author's problem to get those wacky symbols onto paper.
http://www.ebookwise.com/ebookwise/ebookwise1150.h tm
a mmer/?p=83398151
no serious readers reads from computer; they read it on pda or (more commonly) a dedicated device.
The ebookwise isn't a technological marvel, but it's cheap (129$) and relatively user-friendly. The 128 mb smartmedia cards (35$) hold about 150 ebooks.
Ebookwise is sturdy and intended for carrying around; it's a great form factor, with a rubbery outside. And yes, I've read it in the bathtub. http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogr
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
I had thought that they were putting "books" online. Turns out they're just putting the ability to search through books online.
BTW, this came up when I hit next page too many times on "Origin of Species" who's original text, I presume, is not copyrighted.
TW
To read through an entire book, all you need to is start from the beginning. When you get to the last page it will display, search for a result found on that page, then continue the process. I just read the first 15 or so pages of Finnegans Wake this way. I'd continue further, but I value my sanity.
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
Hacking Google Print article on kuro5hin.org, explains how Google Print uses cookies to track your access and ensure you don't look at too many pages. Solution: acquire lots of cookies.
Firefox GreaseMonkey scripts -- scroll to "Google Butler"; it will make saving Google Print pages work without extra effort in Firefox.
I might be wrong about this, but I think that the copyright might be in relation to the text (appearing to) having been scanned from a book printed in 1996.
;-)
For Google to offer it for free would mean that they'd have to scan it from a printed source which is also out of copyright??
Well, I think that's the case....
Anyone who says they fully understand copyright is either a fool or a liar... or worse.
Wiwi
"I trust in my abilities,
but I want more then they offer"
What about Linux assembly language?
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pgubook/
Or, you can buy a printed version from here.
The next issue of Free Software Magazine will likely have a list of many of the good free books available.
Engineering and the Ultimate
FAQ entry on books with updated copyright dates
So there you go.
It's my understanding that they can't re-copyright the actual text. However, they can copyright the presentation, line editting, page breaks and whatnot. So you could take the actual text from them, you couldn't take the text in that presentation from them.
Fun huh?.
Kirby
That said, it's always better to reproduce from an early printing, and not a new printing, to avoid any question of copyright.