Most of the publishing world desperately hangs on to any thread of the old way of doing things. Many bookstores, publishers and many authors are convinced that Google and Amazon are out to put them out of business.

Read about the current lawsuit against Google

As part of the settlement, Google will not show any part of in-copyright books online that are not included under its new “partner program,” according to Google chief legal officer David Drummond.

At the same time, Drummond claims that the settlement will help to boost Google’s scanning of books, and allow it “to begin offering in-copyright, out-of-print books for preview and sale directly online,” MarketWatch wrote. Google has already made more than 7 million books available to Internet users, and Drummond said, “We’re just getting started.”

The settlement also tasks Google with creating the Book Rights Registry, an independent nonprofit service meant to “resolve outstanding claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees from class-action lawsuits against Google,” The Daily Telegraph reported.

I take a different point of view. Readers ultimately are the market. We want to get our information in whatever form we like, whenever and wherever we desire.

The market for books will not go away, but the institutions that cling to the past are doomed. I do hope the stores come up with a good reason for us to shop there.. I do like strolling through the shelves.. but the won’t survive if they just fight progressTechnorati Tags: book marketing, publishing future, bookstores