Does that legal ruling also allow it to charge for access to the digital books without reimbursing the copyright owners?

And who, exactly, is going to stop Google from charging royalties on properties it neither owns nor paid for?  

What we have here--as was mentioned--is digital information being put, ultimately, under corporate lock and key.  And that corporation, seemingly, will be Google.  

(BTW royalties rarely help artists, but do help the corporations who can seize and distribute their work.  We need to give up the whole idea of intellectual property--as it does not give good results.)  

We are looking at an intellectual dark age.  I had not expected to live to see it, but my last trip to a suburban bookstore has persuaded me the dark age has arrived already.  The books still exist, but they are consumed--not read.  The cappuccino is already taking precedence.  

Be your own monk and preserve what you think is worth saving.  Everything not thus saved by someone who cares about it will go.  

The Fates are kind.