It can never be a good thing when the US justice Department throws its weight against your proposals. Google are going to really have to fight to push through their plans for the right to publish millions of books online.
Their offer to compensate authors for every read does not currently seem to be enough to satisfy critics and the recent comparison from the Newspaper industry referring to Google as 'parasites' eating away at the spine of the Internet can not have helped the cause.
Personally, I can't see the problem with the proposals. Having a database of online literature is just another way of selling rather than a competitive challenge to the current model (as is the situation with Newspapers). Few will read an entire book online but having the data there to find what the consumer wants will only help sales. Books are in no way like news. Whilst some people like to quickly scan the news and move on, literature is something to take time over and enjoy in leisurely situations, like holidays and evenings.
The Internet is all about finding information quickly, and whilst this model can affect those who previously relied on their ability to deliver news first, literature is timeless and therefore immune to the fast paced model. Expanding access to the source can only help the industry.
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