Google Book Project

   Google officially began the Google Book Project in 2004, in an attempt to spread knowledge, information, and specifically books, the its users across the globe.  They wished to scan thousands of books and put the digital copies on their website.  They implemented a search feature so a user could search for a specific book and see if it was available.  To complete this, Google got help from many Universities, including Harvard, Stanford, and University of Virginia.  These colleges, along with the New York Public Library, provided Google the books as well as their facilities.  By 2009, Google had scanned and uploaded full books in over 100 languages to users from 124 countries.
     A pretty obvious problem with Google Book Project was its legality, in particular with copyright laws.  After all, copying entire books was not too legal with the Copyright Act.  At this point, about 16% of the books Google had scanned were already in the public domain and thus there weren't many issues as far as copyright laws.  Another nine percent were not in the public domain and were still under copyright protection.  In order to be able to make these available, Google found many of the copyright owners and made them legal.  For the remaining 75% however, they were still under copyright law but the owners were nowhere to be found - either dead or non-existent as a company any more.  To get around copyright laws with these, Google only uploaded small snippets of them.
     I think what Google did with the Google Book Project is great.  Everything we do nowadays can be done from home; people shop, watch TV, do research, and talk with friends all from their home and on their computer.  Why not make books available as well?  Now, I have tried to read a book on Google and it is pretty terrible.  After maybe 15 minutes, it is a strain on the eyes and is no longer worth it.  However, numerous times I have gone on and read a snippet or used a book for research.  It is like a nice library in digital form.
   It also seems as though Google did everything as properly as possible.  Anytime copyright issues were brought up, they were happy to collaborate with copyright owners and libraries to get this project done.  It seems their main goal was to provide their users with knowledge, information, and entertainment, and they have definitely done that.