I have wondered about this issue for some time. Typically, when you write a book, the copyright does not reside solely with the publisher. Both the author and publisher retain rights. The Google process of scanning books is extremely questionable at best, but the individual authors responsible for these works have not be contacted. The “opt out” approach is quite practical for Google and perhaps some might feel like contacting all of these authors would be a significant task. How you even establish that each author understood Google’s intent. How about if the citizens in this community tell me that they would rather I not take their cars. An author has stepped forward to challenge the type of assumptions Google makes.
