The Great Book Bank Robbery - Europe Says NoN!

It may have started with a few questioning comments but now the questions aren’t going away. The days when a few would brow beat the rest into submission are going.
The Bookseller has reported that the French bookseller French booksellers associations Association des Librairies Informatisées & Utilisatrices de Réseaux Electroniques, (ALIRE) and the Syndicat de la Librairie Française, (SLF) have joined French publishers association Syndicat national de l’Édition, (SNE), the Federation of European Publishers (FPE) and European Booksellers Federation (EBF) and the UK Booksellers Association raising their disapproval over Google’s $125m land grab of digital content in their agreement with the Association of American Publishers and the US Authors Guild.

Concerns about the virtual monopoly, the fact that Google wants to be ‘the digital bookstore’, the change to rental models, the opt out not opt in land grab by default, the impact on out of print but in copyright works both on the author’s rights to revert and on orphan works being ‘stolen’ and the whole question of how a deal in the US is confinded to the US and doesn’t by default become global and much more.

We stand by our position in stating that we believe this a ‘bad deal for publishers, authors, booksellers and copyright, creating one rule for Google and another for the rest.

It now makes one ask where the American Booksellers Association stand and why they appear to be silent on the issue. Surely if other booksellers can see the nonsense it can’t make booksense to any bookseller?