I remember when Amazon was new and people wee excited about getting books online. I was an early user and we felt like we were being trendy. I still use it. Now books online has evolved to offering free books online, just like a lot of music. The Boston Globe had a story on this, Joyce, Dickens, Google -- classics are there to download by Hiawatha Bray. This is not new and others have set up rival systems to Google. As Hiawatha wrote, “rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are establishing the Open Content Alliance, an alternative index of public domain books. A number of major libraries have signed up to participate, including the Boston Public Library, Johns Hopkins University, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives of the United Kingdom.”
What I Iiked as a quote from one of the Google project participants, “Peter Kosewski, spokesman for the Harvard University Library, said Google is helping Harvard accomplish its mission of distributing knowledge not only to its students and faculty, but to the entire world. ``I think the possible public good of having a great number of books online is extraordinary," Kosewski said.”
I also like the fact that while I am a paid subscriber to the print version of the Boston Globe and first saw the article in paper, I was able to go online and get a free copy. This only for articles that appeared that day or the day before but I think the link remains good if I get it in time. You tell me.
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