I wrote a book on Ruby on Rails over the course of 2007-2008. While checking out Google Books for the first time today, I searched for my own book and found that the India branch of my publisher (John Wiley & Sons) posted virtually the entire text online for reading (http://books.google.com/books?id=za3qrVS3bwYC&source=gbs_navlinks_s). Investigating further, there apparently is some sort of class action which gives Google the right to do this with all publications, whether or not the author even knows about it or agrees to it.Having spent about a year of late nights and neglecting my friends & family to put this book together, I am horrified. I'm a big believer in open source, and have contributed to more than a few open source projects, but I also believe that the hard work of individuals shouldn't be pillaged by companies with giant legal departments.
Authors / readers on HN: Am I right to be angry? Have you had a similar experience with this?