Google has reached an agreement with France's publishers to scan thousands of out-of-print texts. From the terse explanation offered, it looks like Mountain View will digitize the books, but the publishers and authors will retain commercial use of them. It means those editions will presumably be sold over Google Play rather than being offered free -- but on the upside, will mean that you'll save plenty of time checking eBay for that copy of Fly Fishing by J.R. Hartley.

Google brokers a deal with French publishers to immortalize out-of-print books originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.