Hacking Google Print to read full-text books

Gary Price, Can Full Book Preview Prevention Be Hacked? SearchDay, May 27, 2005. Excerpt: 'Nathan at InsideGoogle shows how he was able to read the first 20 pages of a book by generating various queries. Combined with screenshots (you can make these of Google Print material), technically, you could print out a book. However, there's a chance that the book publisher in this case (O'Reilly, Amazon Hack is the book) may be allowing so many pages to be read. Typically, when you hit a book result, you are allowed to go a few pages before and after the page you read. But that doesn't mean that's all you can read from the book. Publishers can set a percentage of total pages they'll allow to be browsed. The real test is if someone can get to see all the page from a book that is known to have less than a 100 percent allowance. Nevertheless, showing the first 20 pages will no doubt be worrisome, and it will be interesting to see if Google Print will manage to escape full-blown hacks. Part of the prevention measure is forcing people to log-in to read some material, as the Google Print FAQ explains. That may be in response to a hack from earlier this year that looked to prevent cookies from working as a means to block full-book browsing. Amazon also requires users to log-in to use its Search Inside The Book feature. Postscript: After viewing about 50 pages from the book, "The Function of Newspapers in Society: A Global Perspective" this is what appeared on my screen: "You have reached your viewing limit for this book. You may continue browsing to view unrestricted or already viewed pages (view an unrestricted page), or visit the Table of Contents or About this Book pages."'