This will come as welcome news to many, including yours truly. The news is that Google is now offering scanned books in PDF format for free downloading though Google Book Search. Google announced this yesterday.
If you want to download one, you have to find it first by choosing the ‘Full view books’ option on the Google Book Search home page before you start searching. Once you get the results page, you can choose a book by clicking it. You can see the preview of the pages and a download button on the top-right corner of the page.
This has a chance for phenomenal success if Google manages to remain clear of copyright issues. It seems like they would. Google spokeswoman Megan Lamb said,
We use very conservative rules to comply with international copyright laws.Okay then, let’s see how the users take this. It would also be interesting to see how the publishers react to this in the long run.
Oh, I forgot to mention that once you download the digital format of the book, you are free to take prints!
Via: CNET News
