Leader: Don't judge a Google book by its cover

Google has made a large number of out-of-copyright books available for download as free PDFs.

It's a great idea, an excellent research tool and a service that brings web surfers into contact with many great novels from centuries past - and it further demonstrates Google's commitment to providing a rich mix of online content for its legion of users.

It also shows how the internet is continuing to challenge the old order and certainly it seems likely this announcement will stir an angry reaction among publishers who fear the impact this may have on their revenues.

But there are other concerns.

Few people actually looking to read whole books will want to read them in PDF format, so this should raise concerns for businesses - which should consider the effect of employees printing off 500-page novels after work.

It sounds like an over-cautious, penny-pinching concern but Gartner reports that around three per cent of a company's total revenue is currently spent on print costs. It soon adds up.

It is also the case that there is an environmental worry here, with paper and power consumption likely to increase - again it seems a small concern but it's something else which adds up.

A responsible Chas Moloney, marketing director at Ricoh, was today warning his customers to watch what their printers are being used for - scotching any notion that more print-outs is great news for the printer industry irrespective of where they come from.

Moloney told silicon.com the average home printer isn't going to handle a 500-page print job too effectively and he added it stands to reason employees will therefore print books out at work.

And while use of the work printers and photocopiers for running off birthday invites, 'car for sale' ads or 'have you seen this cat?'-type print jobs is nothing new, the introduction of whole novels to that list dramatically raises the bar in terms of cost and environmental impact.