How is Google Books legal?

A friend showed me Google Books, where you can read books on line for free.  

How is this legal?  Books are copyrighted.  I don't know anything about the specifics of copyright but how can Google scan all the pages of a copyrighted book and then make the pages available under their own banner?

For example, the complete text of the 2009 Prix Goncourt winning novel "The Kindly Ones" (Les Bienveillantes) by Jonathan Littell is available here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VphKmPlIBPAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+kindly+ones+google+books&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bNBaU_LqN9GzsATPs4CACQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20kindly%20ones%20google%20books&f=false

Can someone please shed some light on this?

Google has so much money that they can hire supreme Martian lawyers

It's kinda weird, because we're just going to google the answer and give it to you. Why do you refuse to use google on the simple stuff, sure google's not good for everyhitng.

Because I trust you, my friend.  The force is strong in you, brah.

As far as I can see pages 44-283 aren't shown.

A lot of the books that are complete are because of expired copyright.

Good point.  My friend also showed me a "trick" to access the hidden pages via searching another way, or something.  

Now...even if 44-283 were omitted, that still leaves 1-43 and 283-900 as readable right?  That's still hundreds of copyrighted pages.

Presumably the authors/publishers allow it because they think it would lead to increased sales. I wouldn't read part of a novel.

                  I get downloadale pages from New In Chess. Its an enticement to get you to buy the book. There's a case before the Supreme Court now involving Aereo. It records shows for you to watch later. The TV industry is up in arms regarding copyright infringement.

Google just pays to publisher, lol

Why do they still allow Bit Torrent? You'd be surprised at the books you can get off Bit Torrent, not to mention movies, tv shows and what not!

Huh.  I was under the impression that a $25-35 hardcover new could be purchased for $2-3 in "eBook" format.  Is that wrong?  (I've never even as much as held an e-Book thingy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Book_Search_Settlement_Agreement

Thank you very much for finding that, sir.  Would you mind summarising the contents of that article for me?  Thanks.

Google can do whatever it wants.

As socialist as I am I still know (not merely "believe") that authors, publishers, and printers deserve just compensation for their work. 

We've discussed this in Off Topic before. He lacks the initiative to look things up for himself and wants us to do all the work for him... Kinda like that one kid in school that always wants to cheat off of your tests instead of studying.

Riiight... relax, kid.  You can think you are an armchair expert on any topic you want, son, as long as you have your internet connection and your "google" bot or whatever.

By the way, I could tell you were a hardcore right wing John Birch type by your myopic and hostile attitude toward intellectualism -- but you totally confirmed it with your ranting and raving about your small arms collection.

[Comment removed by mod- Please watch the personal attacks. Thank you!]

Not really

I remember reading about when Google first was working on the process so thought I would point to an article that would explain some of it.

That basically is a summary, so if you are unwilling to read it then I guess you'll have to remain in the dark.

I only ever read the ending. The rest is just filler.

Well, it's on Wikipedia as well, which means that by the time I access the article, someone may have subtly changed the content to say the exact opposite of what it should say.

I know for a fact this happens on Wikipedia all the time.  All you need to do is cite fake sources or obscure print-only sources and the intentionally incorrect data will remain in the article for years, as Wikipedia editors are too lazy and stupid to verify information with anything but "google".