Another Death-Of-Publishing Scenario

“Both Amazon and Google are negotiating with American publishers to develop ‘search within the book’ programmes. Google already has a deal with several top libraries from around the world, including the Bodleian, to digitise out of copyright texts. Inevitably, some publishers and the Society of Authors are getting quite excited about this innovation.” But one publisher says ” ‘it may result in no sales’, the publishing equivalent of Armageddon. Collaborate with this ‘Napsterisation’ process, he told the Publishers Association, and the book industry risked ‘undermining the cultural and intellectual tradition of the past 600 years’.”