Jason Kottke notes that a book author Meghann Marco is complaining that she wants her book in Google Print, but that her publisher, Simon and Schuster, is suing Google and refuses to let her submit her book to Google. She feels that Google Print is an excellent way to promote her book.

I'm reminded here of the parallel in p2p file trading. Many smaller artists have reported increase in music sales due to file sharing. I must admit, I cannot see the downside for authors or publishers having their work indexed in Google Print. It can only lead to increases in sales. Instead, publisher objections are more a result of the mindset which they have regarding intellectual property. It's more about control than it is profit.

Moreover, it will interesting to see how the courts approach this. A ruling against Google could be a ruling against search engine indexes in general since the process is the same. Index copyrighted web pages and show the search engine user snippets of the page.

Link courtesy of Open Access News.