Dave Winer writes about and links to some of the unintended consequences of the deals Google has done with universities to digitize books (I write about Google regularly because of their impact in communications, as a reminder Microsoft is my client). It's a perfect example of some of the unintended costs of things that appear to be free. As Dave notes:
It appears none of the libraries thought the whole thing through to the point where they realized that after it's all done, there will be one great university library, Google's, and it will be a commercial entity. It's one thing to sell a food concession to McDonald's, but the library? How much more central to the being of a university can you get?
It's an interesting discussion, and a lesson worth repeating: Things that appear too good to be true usually are.