"Over the last several months, publishers have begun opposing the Google Print for Libraries program (http://print.google.com) and grumbling litigiously about copyright issues. After consulting with the publishing community, Google has responded to the opposition. It now offers what appear to be two carrots but what may actually turn out to be one carrot with a string attached and one carrot that could become a stick. While the publishers decide which to munch, Google will temporarily stop digitizing in-copyright books from its library partners and will concentrate, instead, on accelerating its public domain book digitization (defined as any book published before 1923 or ever published by the U.S. government). The moratorium will last until November. The new provisions offer all copyright holders the right to opt out of the program or, if they prefer to acquire saleable digital copies of their backlists via library-held copies, to get the same copies that the libraries get for their own publications."

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