Take my book -- please!

So the Supremes have endorsed Google's case against the Authors' Guild, of which I have been a member for forty years.  I have to admit, though, cautious agreement with the decision.  Justice Chin:

In my view, Google Books provides significant public benefits. It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders. It has become an invaluable research tool that permits students, teachers, librarians, and others to more efficiently identify and locate books. It has given scholars the ability, for the first time, to conduct full-text searches of tens of millions of books. It preserves books, in particular out-of-print and old books that have been forgotten in the bowels of libraries, and it gives them new life. It facilitates access to books for print-disabled and remote or underserved populations. It generates new audiences and creates new sources of income for authors and publishers. Indeed, all society benefits.

If somehow the law would accurately reflect that partial truth.  I suspect that pirate firms have already parsed it to their advantage.  You don't have to be a lawyer to see that "respectful consideration" opens a hole you could drive an eighteen-wheeler through.

I do agree with the spirit of it, though.  The paradox:  information wants to be free, but people who create information want to be paid.

Joe