Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) can finally put a goofy litigious chapter behind it. It can now get back to the business of scanning books in its effort to make anything ever printed available digitally. Google's book scanning project is intended for one thing, and one thing only: profit-generation while enabling readers to have access to any book from almost any web browser anywhere on earth.

Google will settle two copyright lawsuits for $125 million and then will continue to scan in books and make them available for purchase electronically. Book publishers and authors will, of course, receive advertising revenue and other revenue as a result of Google's efforts. Google will, of course, get a cut of the action as well. I'm not sure of the scale here, but if Google reached just a small portion of readers across the globe and eeked out a buck or two from each one, there's some massive revenue generation for you. Nice business if you can get it.

In addition, Google certainly hopes to convert authors still demanding the physical printing of authored works to the digital side, where even more revenue can be generated. The generation who reads newspapers, carry books with them and does calculations by hand is being replaced by the generation who has everything online from anywhere they go and run a completely digital life. The distribution method is the internet for these folks, and the content must be there as well. There's something nostalgic about taking a nice book with you to read in a quiet place (that is, if you can find a quiet place). But, for those multitasking Gen-Yers, information flows only digitally -- and Google wants to make sure you find what you need through it.