Google Books reprieved

[Mary from Italy]

Google has reached a landmark agreement with authors and publishers to make millions of books available online, in a deal that includes a $125m (£80m) payout and the end to lawsuits filed by companies including Penguin ...

Today's agreement settles a class action lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild in September 2005 challenging Google's plans to digitise, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without explicit permission.

Google settles dispute over online books | Media | guardian.co.uk

Not sure what this bit implies, though:

Rights holders will be able to control the pricing of online content and access to books.

[Kit]

So it sounds like google books wont be free anymore. I was hoping for more free access, not less. Also what happens to non US libraries and people?

[Mary from Italy]

No idea, it isn't explained in that article. They probably haven't decided what to do yet.

I would think anything out of copyright will continue to be free - the problem is books that are still in copyright.