Not many distinguished writers tried jumping onto the Internet book fad like Stephen King did. As he entered into the bandwagon, Mr. King sold a latest novel of his in "batches," on a pay-per-read basis. With "e-books" being in yet a phase of infancy, these "digitized publications" haven't met up publishers' and writers' expectations. For these reasons, Stephen King gave up the offer, just like many other writers.

This though, does not mean that "e-books" are gone. Many still believe, just as information and communication technology buffs, that e-books will sell like hotcakes in the future. To them, e-books are bound to tremendously change modern publishing. They point to the internet and how it is changing lives and affecting in a great way people's manners of communication, their ways of working, styles in interacting and habits of shopping.

Statistics say that the United States alone has 203,000,000 Internet users. China's registry reflects 103,000,000 more. With the rest of the world's rapidly fast discovery and growing interest in the internet, the numbers mirror only "the tip of the iceberg."

Notably, the Internet has also changed the course of newspaper publications. Major newspapers selling for over 400 years old have adjusted to the modern age, trying to mark themselves in various online spaces. Television and advertising have also been seen to react to the so-called "online threat." Online-based ads has acquired whooping revenues, at par with the traditional media.

A similar case is faced by the book business. Google.com, Amazon.com and e-Bay have been currently crowned as the largest online auctioneers, selling billions of items that are categorized into over 40,000 types. Last year, around 150,000,000 registered online users globally worldwide traded goods through these three online biggies.

Google's business is mainly "scanning" books from top libraries, allowing its users to check for relevant facts, passages or quotations from the books' digitized versions. This method has proven to be very convenient for users who only need to find certain quotes and need not look up an entire book from the library. Google has defended that it works around the concept of "fair usage" which essentially allows the use of materials with copyright for research and other learning purposes.

Legal battles have ensued from Google's digital scanning of books. Complaints have recently been filed by the American Publishers Association like John Wiley and Sons, Pearson Group, McGraw Hill, Penguin and Simon & Schuster accusing Google of copyright laws infringement.

Another Google idea is the development of its Print Library, which scans books found in the libraries of distinguished universities, which earned even more complaints from the Author's Guild.

Amid all these, Google has expressed its interest in expanding its book search engine projects, essentially covering copyrighted contents of books. Also, Google is pushing its "online book rental" concept, which according to news reports, have earned support from major publishers.

Google's detractors argue that the business is looking only at its own economic interest. However, Google's benefiting public disputes that the simplest idea of making online search more convenient and much easier is commendable.

As a result, the legal battles make everyone review the basics of copyright laws and the importance of understanding them, especially in the age of Internet revolution.