Eric Wittenberg has been death on this project, from a copyright point of view. Now the news gets worse: Google, UC Ink Pact to Digitize Books .
This is the part that is amazing: "and though UC has not specified which books will be digitized, it has said millions of volumes will be scanned under the initiative, according to The Daily Californian." Is that because UC has secured millions of rights to do so? Or do they have millions of copyright-expired tomes on hand ready to scan?
Have they even read those copyright disclaimers they themsleves tape onto Xerox machines within their library?
And why did Google partner with UC? Because it was the cheapest bidder on the job or because it was the most ethically relaxed university system with a library attached to it?
Inquiring minds want to know.
