Not only are the books themselves not going anywhere, the libraries themselves will be getting their own copy of the archive (at least, that's the deal at least one of the libraries has made with Google, although it seems that each library has made a separate deal and they've all had to sign significant non-disclosure agreements). So it's really not as though Google will have exclusive control over even the digital form of all this material.
To give a concrete example of what a good deal this is (at least for some people).. I decided to go with Skype instead of Verizon when I moved, and I've been fairly happy with it. I'm already paying about $40/year for incoming calls, but I'm not terribly put out by the idea of paying another $30/year. For similar service (but with no voicemail, call waiting, or caller ID) Verizon wants me to pay $21 per MONTH, in additon to 8 cents a MINUTE for calls outside my immediate "local area" (which does not include actual "long distance" service).
So yeah, I'm still pretty happy with the deal I'm getting.
Slashdot Mirror
Not only are the books themselves not going anywhere, the libraries themselves will be getting their own copy of the archive (at least, that's the deal at least one of the libraries has made with Google, although it seems that each library has made a separate deal and they've all had to sign significant non-disclosure agreements). So it's really not as though Google will have exclusive control over even the digital form of all this material.
To give a concrete example of what a good deal this is (at least for some people).. I decided to go with Skype instead of Verizon when I moved, and I've been fairly happy with it. I'm already paying about $40/year for incoming calls, but I'm not terribly put out by the idea of paying another $30/year. For similar service (but with no voicemail, call waiting, or caller ID) Verizon wants me to pay $21 per MONTH, in additon to 8 cents a MINUTE for calls outside my immediate "local area" (which does not include actual "long distance" service). So yeah, I'm still pretty happy with the deal I'm getting.