Google Books

Has anyone seen the release of Google books today? They offer ebooks in different formats (by storing it on their server and adjusting the content based on what reader you are using). My question is there are a ton of books that are available for free on their site. How are they legally allowed to display all these books when most of them are still for sale? Doesn't the author/publisher retain the right to receive royalties (which won't happen when their books are shown for free).

For those that haven't seen:

books.google.com

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Comments

chmorin

If I had to guess, google is probably making money SOMEHOW and if not, they will probbaly add it in a little later after it gets popular.

[Deleted User]

Project Gutenberg - free ebooks online download for iPad, Kindle, Nook, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, Sony Reader

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Long story short, the copyright on those books has expired so they can be distributed for free.

chmorin

xmalachi wrote: »

Project Gutenberg - free ebooks online download for iPad, Kindle, Nook, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, Sony Reader

Compare the lists

Its cool, but it is different. Type in 'cisco press' in google books and then in gutenberg. Not even close.

[Deleted User]

chmorin wrote: »

Its cool, but it is different. Type in 'cisco press' in google books and then in gutenberg. Not even close.

Sorry I didn't clarify. I was referring to the books that were free on Google Books which NightShade was questioning.

billyr

chmorin wrote: »

Its cool, but it is different. Type in 'cisco press' in google books and then in gutenberg. Not even close.

LOL, that's the first thing I typed as soon as I seen the post.

chmorin

xmalachi wrote: »

Sorry I didn't clarify. I was referring to the books that were free on Google Books which NightShade was questioning.

Hmmm... how does google do this: Implementing Cisco IOS Network ... - Google Books

That was released in 2009. It even has a nifty 'copyrighted material' in the bottom right of every page...

Google... quit breaking the rules!

Edit @ Above: Hahahah, I'm sure we are not alone

NightShade03

chmorin wrote: »

Hmmm... how does google do this: Implementing Cisco IOS Network ... - Google Books

That was released in 2009. It even has a nifty 'copyrighted material' in the bottom right of every page...

That's what I'm saying...

There is an RHCE book I found that is from early this year that sells for $40 on Amazon, how is Google able to display the whole book for free?! Doesn't make any sense.

[Deleted User]

Oh okay, I misunderstood then. I think somewhere on those books it says "Some Pages Omitted" or something to that effect. I can't really tell you how they are pulling that one off then.

chmorin

xmalachi wrote: »

Oh okay, I misunderstood then. I think somewhere on those books it says "Some Pages Omitted" or something to that effect. I can't really tell you how they are pulling that one off then.

Magic.

No wait- Thats apple. I'm confused now too...

NightShade03

ok I got 60 pages into the book before they cut me off (preview only). I was also really confused because I have never seen that many pages for a preview.

rfult001

This has been available for a while now. Most of the stuff is limited preview and marked as such when you look at the search results. It is equivalent to publishers releasing sample chapters.

Google will likely never pay royalties to host current books.

If you want complete books you can try Open Books or books published under Creative Commons licensing:

O'Reilly Open Books Project
Books - CC Wiki
Creative Commons
List of freely available programming books - Stack Overflow

There are several publishers that do this and release some quality material.

hypnotoad

I'm guessing for free stuff it's either public domain or google is paying the publisher to subsidize the cost to get some good press/advertising.