Google and academic libraries

James Grimmelmann on the Google academic library scan project:

"The program will scan some 15 million books to create searchable electronic versions. Public domain ones will simply be placed online outright. Estimates place the cost at $10/book. $150 million sounds like a real fistful of change, but when you think about it, it's astonishingly little. By way of comparison, it's less than EA paid the NFL for exclusive rights to make NFL-branded football video games, the daily cost of the occupation in Iraq, or the price tag to make and market Battlefield Earth. In exchange, we get the remade Library of Alexandria.
What's in it for Google? The same thing that's in open source for IBM. Vendors who contribute to open source software sell hardware and services whose value is enhanced by having a productive commons. Software, hardware, and support are natural complements. As I see it, Google sells search, and search and content are natural complements.

I look forward tremendously to having all that public domain material online: watch out publishers, because you're about to have to start competing with free in a whole new way."