Abilene experts weigh in on Google Books settlement

"Alice Specht, dean of university libraries at Hardin-Simmons University, said she supported Chin's decision. "The settlement would have allowed one commercial entity — Google Books — to be the exclusive seller, not free provider, of content that it does not own for decades into the future," she said. Specht believes copyright law needs to be changed to provide digital content for scholarly use but said she sees "no reason that Google should have the exclusive right to sell such content." "I would support the availability of materials that are out of copyright or orphaned works to be available in open access, but I see no reason to give Google special rights to sell such works," she said...."