More Digital Ash

CBC reports that Microsoft has plunged into the world of digitzing books. Like Amazon and Google, Microsoft will provide search access to "25 million pages of material from the British Library." Unlike Google, Microsoft will only digitize older books that are in the public domain, thus not infringing any copyright laws, though they plan to expand the collection "in the future." It looks like the trend is catching on. Perhaps most books will be available online in just a few years; this is a good use of the mega-power that these companies have. I hope that authors see it that way, too.