Authors Guild Fears Amazon

Last week, Amazon.com <a href=‘http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=IROL-NewsText&t=Regular&id=462057&">unveiled a new feature, Search Inside the Book, which allows shoppers to search the full text of over 120,000 books. Searchers are allowed to browse through the 5 pages surrounding the search term.
Wired Magazine: The Great Library of Amazonia. This type of search on this scale has never been so easily available before and it makes finding relevant information faster and easier.
However, the Authors Guild fears this feature will hurt sales and that existing publishing contracts do not grant the publishers the rights to allow such uses: <a href=http://www.authorsguild.org/news/amazon_launches_full.htm">Amazon’s New Database Likely to Help Sales of Some Works, May Undermine Others. The Guild worries that: “A student could easily grab the relevant chapter or two out of a book without paying for it.” Perhaps Barnes and Noble should not allow its patrons to sit around in stores and read entire relevant chapters. University libraries should not have reference books available on reserve, so that students can easily read the relevant chapter or two out of a book. NY Times: Amazon Offer Worries Authors
Ernest Miller wonders how the precedent of NY Times v. Tasini (publishers were not allowed to include in news databases articles written by freelancers without getting specific permission) would apply to existing publishing contracts.