Stan Gibilisco writes books about science and technology for the home-schooling and self-teaching markets. He maintains a Web site at www.sciencewriter.net Science writer Stan Gibilisco said he has no problem with his book being scanned for Google's Print Library Project -- but only because his publisher, which owns the copyright, has given permission for Google to do so.

Recently I received an e-mail from the Authors Guild, expressing concern about Google Print. This corporation, together with several academic libraries, is allegedly committing copyright infringement by scanning certain published works without the permission of the copyright holders.

I went to the Google Print Web site and entered the phrase "complex impedance." My book Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, 3rd edition came up as the top hit! When I checked with my publisher, McGraw-Hill, who legally owns the copyright, they told me that they had given Google permission to scan the book. That's okay with me. Users can't download more than a few pages. The exposure is good. It amounts to free advertising.

But I would nevertheless be alarmed if my publisher had said they had not given Google permission to do this.

In all the discussion about Google, I have not yet heard explicit mention of the tyrannosaurus in the tea room. Is any entity above the law in the United States of America?

The people who founded this country demanded that American society should be governed by laws, not by "men." They did not wish to be ruled by some Louis XIV or Augustus Caesar. As a result of their efforts, we today in theory rule ourselves, based on laws formulated by a Congress we elect.

If we allow any person, corporation, or consortium to rise above the law, especially where people's livelihoods are at risk, what sort of nation are we? If we do not stop what Google is allegedly doing, then, assuming Google and the participating instutitions are actually guilty of lawbreaking (which, our founders insisted, must be proven before it is taken as fact), we will soon be ruled by gangs of latter-day Louis XIVs and Augustus Caesars.

By passively granting any person, corporation, or consortium immunity to our laws, we in effect elect them to make our laws. And, as we all ought to know by now, tyrants of this sort need not be confined to the Internet.