Abstract: To many, the dream of a digital Alexandria seemed a giant step closer to reality when, in December 2004, the search engine Google announced that it had entered into agreements with the New York Public Library and four major universities to digitally scan their collections so that Internet users worldwide could search them. In September 2005, the Authors Guild, the largest society of published writers in the United States, filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Google's Print Library Project-since renamed the Google Books Library Project-constituted "massive copyright infringement." Pointing to Google Print for Publishers, an earlier program in which Google partnered with various publishing companies, the Authors Guild and the AAP say that copyright holders' permissions should also be required for the Google Books Library Project and that compensation should at least be discussed for any use of works that results in copies of the original material.