On Thursday, Google supposedly opened the web’s first virtual library. Google said it’s making available the first large collection of public books, which range from U.S. Civil War history texts to government documents. They’re not subject to copyright laws, either because they were never bound by these laws or because their copyrights have expired. Books published before 1923 are considered public domain. While the Association of American Publishers and Author’s Guild have filed separate lawsuits against Google, Google contends that it has a legal right to scan the books under the fair-use clause of the Copyright Act.