I somehow missed this when it was published last week, but Io9's explanation of the Google Books Settlement is required reading for book-lovers and people who are interested in matters of copyright. I've been following this story from the beginning and I still learned a lot from reading this piece.

If you care about the future of books, you need to understand the Google Book Settlement. It's a complicated legal document, but we've talked to some of its architects, detractors, and defenders - and break it all down for you.

The Google Book Settlement could easily be the twenty-first century's most important shift in how we deal with copyright in the world of publishing.