Google Book Scanning Targeted Amazon

The Google Books saga continues, many years after the lawsuit has first been filed. With a settlement between Google and a couple of author and publisher groups in the US being dismissed by the court, the two sides are going forward with the lawsuit.

Progress is slow and it will be a few years before anything is done. But in the meantime, some interesting tidbits of information are starting to surface.

Like the fact that Google had a clear target in mind when it devised Google Books and, surprising no one, that target was Amazon.

Apparently, as far back as 2003, Google said in an internal presentation that "we want web searchers interested in book content to come to Google, not Amazon." The presentation also said something to the effect of "everything else is secondary… but make money."

Google has maintained that it scanning millions of books, for which the company spent $180 million, €145 million, is fair use since Google doesn't enable others to read copyrighted books, just excerpts of them. It also presented Books as an educational tool.

Via: Google Book Scanning Targeted Amazon