Friday, August 21, 2009

The Great Book Bank Robbery - The Opposition Grows

The momentum of opposition to the Google Book Settlement is growing as the date for judicial decision draws near. Is it surprising that it has taken so long to treat through the treacle that is the settlement and wake people up to the potential implications. The one thing that is clear is that the settlement has divided the publishing community like no other issue and as predicted the noise levels from both camps is only getting louder.

Today the Wall Street Journal broke the news, 'Tech's Bigs Put Google's Books Deal In Crosshairs', reporting that three technology corporations have joined with some library associations to challenge the settlement. Many nay expect Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon to oppose the settlement and the Internet Archive has been a consistent objector since the settlement was announced. But the fact that they have apparently all agreed to join together and co-led by Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley lawyer involved in the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation against Microsoft Corp. last decade would indicate that they intend to jointly fight the settlement. Expect some mudslinging from Google against Microsoft and their partners as the fight could get a little muddy.

Slowly the opposition from authors, librarians, European booksellers and publishers and privacy advocates has increased and the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general are still continuing their investigation into the settlement.

Others are claimed to be considering joining the group.

1 comment:

j purdie said...

So more and more are accepting that the Google deal is bad. Why don't more and more just assert their rights and tell Google they don't have the right to scan in books? Google must know it's wrong otherwise there wouldn't be the clause in the agreement about how authors and publishers have to accept the agreement before they can opt out of it: that's well dodgy.