RE: Google Books

["David Carlson" <dcarlson@lib.siu.edu>]

I was curious to use Google eBooks yesterday after the 
announcement and so went through the motion of buying a book. I 
got to the point where I was presented with the well-known "agree 
to these terms" screen. Like most people, I pay no attention but 
this time I was curious.

I started clicking down to page through the terms. When I 
started, I noticed that the progress bar barely moved, so I kept 
clicking and clicking and clicking. I started counting clicks. My 
intent was to count to the end but I just got tired and got 
worried about the battery on my wireless mouse...

Therefore based on my progress to the approximate half-way point, 
my estimate is that if you wish to actually read the terms you're 
agreeing to in buying a Google eBook, you will need to click 
through about 500 times. Yes, 500. Occasionally, you will see 
some Spanish and a little Chinese as you click by, but keep going 
-- there is English all the way through and to the end.

Admittedly, the default screen text size for the terms was fairly 
small but it was the default and I saw no way to expand the text 
box.

Not sure what this says except that a lot of lawyers were clearly 
involved. A lot of lawyers. I think it also says that it is 
certainly not reasonable or expected that a rational, reasonable 
user of Google eBooks who "agrees to the terms" will have any 
idea or concept of what they are agreeing to.

-- David Carlson