digital libraries?

As a writer, I have to agree with Nick Taylor's opinion in his article, The Digital Library Plan: But Not at Writers' Expense, in which he states that all writers should be compensated for the work they do. In 2005, Google launched a plan to create an online database of books with a library scanning program. The problem arises with them doing so by not licensing in-copyright works, in other words, authors are not getting paid for their works being accessed. A copyright law gives the creator ownership of what they have created and guarantees that they will be able to continuously profit from their work, as long as it is under copyright. Google decided that didn't matter to them because, "writers and publishers should be happy about this: it will increase their exposure and maybe lead to more book sales." That's possible, yes, but what about in the mean time? Do writers just sit around and hope that this program will bring good things for them? Obviously an online database of books is an excellent idea, but only if it is done right. Google's co-founders rank among the twenty richest people in the world and the company is constantly growing and earning more. You'd think they could throw the writers a bone. A simple plan could be engineered where each time the books are accessed, the author gets a check. I believe that yes, knowledge is important, but so is recognizing the hard work and frustration that goes into creating a book. There should be respect for writers and all that they do.