google print

So the Author's Guild filed suit against Google Print.

Google Print and Author's Guild - Google Blog

I'm not particularly surprised here, but I am somewhat disappointed. Google Print provides an excellent resource for researchers, writers, and the general public in addition to authors. In today's world, no one has the time or patience to sit around thinking about books. Google Print allows you to search in the modern sense for exactly what you are seeking and provides you with some alternative sources you may not have found otherwise.

Here's my question - if a library, or the ALA, had implemented a program similar to Google Print, would the Author's Guild have questioned it? My guess is that they wouldn't even have flinched at the card-catalog replacement. I'm not sure how we should draw the line between commercialism and copyright, but I don't think the Author's Guild got this one right.