Thanks for your reply.

Since your goal is to alert users that the works remain in the public domain because the Google guidelines are strictly voluntary, perhaps you should discuss that issue first in your Google Book Search page. That way, when users find the guidelines in the files, they won’t become confused.

Of course, this doesn’t deal with the issue of later confusion due to subsequent redistribution of files found on your page because the guidelines remain in the files.

These books are somewhat hidden in books.google.com – a normal google search (which is what 99% of google users may find sufficient) will not reveal them. Much the same goes for all digitization projects. My wish: If you find digitized works that you think will be useful for others, link to them wherever you can.

Charles, I agree removing the watermark + Google introduction would be better. I just didn’t know how. Brian Mingus in the comments thread to my post now says:

“… the easiest way to remove the notices for one book is to use Adobe Acrobat Professional. Just go to Document > Delete Pages > 1 to 1. That’s it.”

As far as how legally binding Google’s guidelines are, Google issued an official statement emphasizing they’re meant only as voluntary “netiquette”. Still, I doubt most users will be able to tell the one from the others — simply because most users aren’t lawyers.