Robert Darnton berichtet in der aktuellen New York Review of Books ausführlich über den Stand des Rechtsstreits rund um die Verwertung der bisher digitalisierten zehn Millionen Bücher. Er bringt dabei eine öffentliche digitale Bibliothek als Alternative ins Gespräch:

The most ambitious solution would transform Google’s digital database into a truly public library. That, of course, would require an act of Congress, one that would make a decisive break with the American habit of determining public issues by private lawsuit. The legislation would have to settle ancillary problems—how to adjust copyright, deal with orphan books, and compensate Google for its investment in digitizing—but it would have the advantage of clearing up a messy legal landscape and of giving the American people what they deserve: a national digital library equal to the needs of the twenty-first century. But it is not clear how Google would react to such a buyout.