Many of the books in Google Books come from authors and publishers who participate in our Partner Program. For these books, our partners decide how much of the book is browsable — anywhere from a few sample pages to the whole book.
For books that enter Google Books through the Library Project, what you see depends on the book’s copyright status. We respect copyright law and the tremendous creative effort authors put into their work. If the book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright, you can page through the entire book and even download it and read it offline. But if the book is under copyright, and the publisher or author is not part of the Partner Program, we only show basic information about the book, similar to a card catalog, and, in some cases, a few snippets — sentences of your search terms in context. The aim of Google Books is to help you discover books and assist you with buying them or finding a copy at a local library. It’s like going to a bookstore and browsing – with a Google twist.
Obviously, as no copyright law in the world encompasses a work published in the 18th-century, this help page is no help.
I have always found Google to be responsive to my comments, except over this subject. They never reply.
Please comment. Please list books that you have found that Google has taken down.
I am noticing that it no longer easy to find when and from what library a book was scanned. Have you, by chance, ever contacted the library a book was scanned from to inquire about why their title is no longer publicly available?