A great leap forward.

So we finally made another important step towards our grand dream of a knowledge society: Google is granted rights to catagolue all books of US publishers and to offer books first publicated more than 50 years ago for free.
The reactions are ambivalent: Some welcome the decision by the courts in the US as a "quantum leap" in knowledge management, others fear an intellectual supremacy by Google and a further decline in the quality of literature - as for example this article on NZZ:
I can't help but to sigh about such ignorants' critique and want to take up the word in favour of the decision - because once again, people seem to miss the most important aspect.
In this case, it's about economies of scale and scope. Of course, publishers primarily resisted to Google's plans of an online library because they were afraid of more competition, decreasing sales numbers and profits. However, that ignorant view on knowledge economics is the reason in the first place for books having a rather small importance in this our society.
What's the reason for people don't read that much? Why don't you read more yourself? Think of all the spare time when commuting? Eating? Always those dull and boring free newspapers. One common and striking reason is money. Simple money! Books are way too expensive - especially here in Europe. Who wants to pay 120 CHF for a introduction book into economics? Screw the introduction if the book price doesn't pay off already! And why do you think book prices are so high anyway? Did publishers miss the last 50 years in cost optimization? Probably not but they simply can't save more costs because of lacks in economies of scale. And why's that? Because there aren't enough buyers! Do you see the vicious circle in that? And if so, you might not object that much if I claim that it was this ignorant, pathetic view on knowledge economics by the publishers that led the Western world into a dark age of illiteracy in the first place. You doubt that the opposite works? Well then, have a look at Japan! That country is floating in books! Book prices normally aren't more expensive than 1'500 Yen - because people read! Oh, yes, they do! Everywhere! Lots of crap, of course, but at least they read! And it's also Japan that provides with aozora.com an online platform with an ever expanding fund on books. The possibility of that lies in the Japanese copyright which doesn't get passed to the publishers but remains with the author - and 50 years after he died, gets cancelled automatically.
To the concerns about quality. Out of simple statistics, do you think chances of a good book among 1000 or among 100 is better? Don't you think that chances get bigger that an ingenious author rises among 1 Million instead of mere 100'000 readers? What makes good authors in the first place? Right, reading! This point is way too evident for being explained even further.
Now of course, the more the messier. But that's exactly where the first and most evident advantage comes in with Google's efforts: an international catalogue where you find ANY book! No more searching in different databases and libraries. You'll get it all at once.
So what's left to be concerned about? The supremacy? As much as Google fought with the courts to get this through, they will face the states' resistance if they should dare to abuse it. And even if some people's idiocy about the unnecessity of states should prevail and thus this our legal protection fail, the market will handle it: Less authors will publish through Google, another platform develops and readers shift over. Ever thought why large communication companies with monopolistic powers don't charge much more? Read about Porter (1980) and the risk of potential market entries! Oh right, it's been way too expensive till now to go and buy his books.