The main article about the Google settlement appears only in the printed version of Access (fall 2009). The text below is an accompanying sidebar, listing concerns.

What are some of the main concerns?

Access
• Are the permitted free uses of copyrighted books sufficient?
• Are subscription costs going to be too high?
• Will Canadian research libraries be able to compete with the more comprehensive institutional subscriptions offered by US university and public libraries?

Censorship
• Is Google going to censor or exclude books and, if so, what are the criteria?
• Is there a mechanism to force Google to scan all books or identify those it chooses not to scan?
• Will excluded books be lost to the public record?

Competition
• Will Google become the key source of what libraries now consider “book content”?
• If so, how will the role of public libraries change?

Copyright
• How will Canadian works be represented and compensated?

User Privacy
• How will Google retain and use the reading histories of their clients?

Antitrust Concerns
• On July 2, 2009, the U.S. Justice Department opened a formal investigation into the settlement.