InternetWeek.com just published a very interesting article on Google and its plans to scan the contents of university libraries and make them free and accessible to the public.

"Google is digitizing entire university libraries. Book publishers haven't decided if the Google Library Project means exposure to new readers or copyright infringement on a massive scale. It's a question the Supreme Court may have to decide....Deals with Google were struck one publisher at a time, but they included restrictions on the amount of material from a work under copyright that Google could show in search results, maintaining a fair-use argument for the search engine's use. When searchers click on a listing, they might be able to read anywhere from several pages to only a few sentences containing the keywords. Listings also include a shot of the book cover, links to online booksellers and ads. But if Google copies a library book instead of making a deal with the publisher of that book, it's likely the publisher would be cut out of any ad revenue share."

What this means in a nutshell is that Google might be putting itself in a very bad place, publicity wise. Ad revenue from these publicized book offerings apparently would not go to the publishers or the authors, but straight to Google and its already pretty good-sized pockets. What do you think about this issue? Discuss this in the forums.