-
Google Offers Free Book Downloads
Techtree News Staff, Aug 31, 2006 1244 hrs ISTGoogle has launched a new service, books.google.com, wherein users can download PDF files of classic works of literature for free.
Google has launched a new service, books.google.com, wherein users can download PDF files of classic works of literature for free.
With a mission "to organize the world's information", Google believes that the service will help keep readers' interest in timeless classics alive.
According to Adam Smith, group product manager, Google Book Search and Google Scholar, the books available for download will only be those that are in the public domain, and thus not protected by copyright. Until now, people have been able to read these public-domain books on the Google Book Search Web site, but not download and print them.
Smith further said that Google will not allow downloading of copyrighted books, not even those for which it has obtained permission from the copyright holders to display their full text. The vast majority of the public-domain books available for download have been scanned as part of the Library Project of the Google Book Search service.
Meanwhile, the new service also applies to books on which the copyright has expired. And copyrighted books will still appearing in only strictly limited format - with a few extracts.
Keeping the copyright issue in mind, Google has made it a point not to offer works written and published after the mid-19th century. Google has been scanning out-of-copyright classics from some leading libraries in the US and the UK, which will now be made available on books.google.com.
Among those books being offered as a PDF download include Dante's "Inferno"; Aesop's "Fables"; Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; and Ferriar's "The Bibliomania". Users can find the downloads by selecting the "Full view" radio button when searching on books.google.com.
It is also learnt that the program is an extension of a book search service undertaken with major universities to put the text of books online, and let people read such books on-screen. Google supports the service by showing its small, keyword-generated text ads on search-results pages.
The leading partners in Google's project to digitize library books in the US and the UK include the University of California, Harvard University, University of Michigan, The New York Public Library, Oxford University, and Stanford University.
With a mission "to organize the world's information", Google believes that the service will help keep readers' interest in timeless classics alive.
According to Adam Smith, group product manager, Google Book Search and Google Scholar, the books available for download will only be those that are in the public domain, and thus not protected by copyright. Until now, people have been able to read these public-domain books on the Google Book Search Web site, but not download and print them.
Smith further said that Google will not allow downloading of copyrighted books, not even those for which it has obtained permission from the copyright holders to display their full text. The vast majority of the public-domain books available for download have been scanned as part of the Library Project of the Google Book Search service.
Meanwhile, the new service also applies to books on which the copyright has expired. And copyrighted books will still appearing in only strictly limited format - with a few extracts.
Keeping the copyright issue in mind, Google has made it a point not to offer works written and published after the mid-19th century. Google has been scanning out-of-copyright classics from some leading libraries in the US and the UK, which will now be made available on books.google.com.
Among those books being offered as a PDF download include Dante's "Inferno"; Aesop's "Fables"; Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; and Ferriar's "The Bibliomania". Users can find the downloads by selecting the "Full view" radio button when searching on books.google.com.
It is also learnt that the program is an extension of a book search service undertaken with major universities to put the text of books online, and let people read such books on-screen. Google supports the service by showing its small, keyword-generated text ads on search-results pages.
The leading partners in Google's project to digitize library books in the US and the UK include the University of California, Harvard University, University of Michigan, The New York Public Library, Oxford University, and Stanford University.
Tag keywords
Opinion Poll
- Which desktop web browser do you use?
-
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Other (specify in comments)
Poll Results View Previous Polls