It is worth adding as a footnote a reference to another distinct perspective on the Google Book Search project. The cultural critic, Siva Vaidhyanathan, has been concerned that the Google Book Search project has attracted lawsuits for copyright infringement from the Authors’ Guild and the Association of American Publishers. In a provocative piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Vaidhyanathan noted that an adverse verdict against Google will have a chilling effect on the activities of libraries and universities: “I can't help but envision this fight as one between Godzilla and Megalon. Whoever the bad guy turns out to be, a whole lot of good things are going to get crushed in the melee.” One can only pray that the grand hopes of the Google Book Search project will not be smashed in a B-grade monster-mash, copyright battle. Vaidhyanathan considers whether the ethos of Google will be affected by its rapid commerical expansion. He fears at one extreme that the search engine will be too dominant, and at the other that Google could fail. Vaidhyanathan cautions that the search engine has the potential to be a monopolist, given the right market conditions: "Beware any corporation that pretends to speak for the public interest. That's usually a contingent pledge based on convenience and temporary market conditions." On the other side, he worries about the potential for Google to fail in the marketplace: "The long-term risk of privatization is simple: Companies change and fail. Libraries and universities last. Should we entrust our heritage and collective knowledge to a business that has been around for less time than Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were together?" It is a perturbing hypothesis about the possible futures of Google. It will be interesting to see how Siva seeks to establish this argument in a longer academic article that he has promised. Siva Vaidhyanathan, "A Risky Gamble with Google", A Chronicle of Higher Education, 2nd December 2005, http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/002445.html Message was edited by: Matthew Rimmer