"This agreement aims to make millions of out-of-print but in-copyright books available either for a fee or for free with ad support, with the majority of the revenue flowing back to the rights holders, be they authors or publishers."
"...rights holders can at any time set pricing and access rights for their works or withdraw them from Google Books altogether."
"For those books whose rights holders have not yet come forward, reasonable default pricing and access policies are assumed. This allows access to the many orphan works whose owners have not yet been found and accumulates revenue for the rights holders, giving them an incentive to step forward."
"...nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort. nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort."
I remain most concerned about the lack of present competition. But I remind myself that possible future competitors can come forth should Google et al price themselves too richly.
In the meantime, getting a deal that makes the books available is the critical point. Brin reminds us that even library books don't survive fire and flood.
Opponents of copyright will remain opposed on principle. That strikes me as quixotic, even as I agree in principle.
