Bad news for Google Books? Amazon patents showing images of book pages to users

[mandy]

Amazon was granted a patent on Tuesday by the USPTO that covers a technique for allowing users "to request access to one or more electronic images of pages in a physical text." If you think this sounds like Amazon Upgrade, you're right—and it could have ramifications for the Google Book Search project.

Patent 7,174,054 was submitted back in December 2003 and is now assigned to "Amazon Technologies, Inc." The patent clearly covers the Amazon Upgrade program, in which customers can purchase access to electronic copies of physical books.

This appears to be the key difference between the system described in the patent and Google Book Search. The Amazon system is "based on user ownership of the physical text," which in this case is verified by purchasing the book through Amazon...

full article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070208-8798.html