Google Rivals Will Oppose Book Settlement
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: August 20, 2009
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo are planning to join a coalition of nonprofit groups, individuals and library associations to oppose a proposed class-action settlement giving Google the rights to commercialize digital copies of millions of books.
The settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers, which is awaiting court approval, has attracted opposition from various corners of the book world. The Department of Justice has also opened an antitrust investigation into the implications of the agreement.
Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer in Silicon Valley, who is acting as counsel to the coalition, said that Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo had all agreed to join the group, which is tentatively called the Open Book Alliance. The group, led by Mr. Reback and the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has been critical of the settlement, plans to make a case to the Justice Department that the arrangement is anticompetitive. Members of the alliance will most likely file objections with the court independently.
“This deal has enormous, far-reaching anticompetitive consequences that people are just beginning to wake up to,” said Mr. Reback, a lawyer with Carr & Ferrell, a firm in Palo Alto, Calif. In the 1990s, Mr. Reback helped persuade the Justice Department to file its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.
Some library associations and groups representing authors are also planning to join the coalition, he said.
The rest of the piece - NYT.
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: August 20, 2009
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo are planning to join a coalition of nonprofit groups, individuals and library associations to oppose a proposed class-action settlement giving Google the rights to commercialize digital copies of millions of books.
The settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers, which is awaiting court approval, has attracted opposition from various corners of the book world. The Department of Justice has also opened an antitrust investigation into the implications of the agreement.
Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer in Silicon Valley, who is acting as counsel to the coalition, said that Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo had all agreed to join the group, which is tentatively called the Open Book Alliance. The group, led by Mr. Reback and the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has been critical of the settlement, plans to make a case to the Justice Department that the arrangement is anticompetitive. Members of the alliance will most likely file objections with the court independently.
“This deal has enormous, far-reaching anticompetitive consequences that people are just beginning to wake up to,” said Mr. Reback, a lawyer with Carr & Ferrell, a firm in Palo Alto, Calif. In the 1990s, Mr. Reback helped persuade the Justice Department to file its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.
Some library associations and groups representing authors are also planning to join the coalition, he said.
The rest of the piece - NYT.
3 comments:
I have seen a number of articles on this Google settlement, and they all focus on how awful this is for authors.
Can we please talk about the benefits to the Internet user and researchers?
Google is essentially creating a blockbuster online library. Yes, Google should pay for each book, like a library does. But then it should be allowed to "lend" out those books to the Internet public. And if it has the little Google ads on the side, so what? Libraries also have vending machines and coffee machines for people to purchase things while they read.
Instead of crying about it and demanding government retaliation, NZ should be providing guarantees that Google will not be sued if it offers access to these books here.
Being an area blocked on the Internet is an incredibly bad thing. Amazon already blocks MP3 sales here. We should be working to open up access. Turning our backs on huge developments like this will keep this country an Internet backwater.
Encourage Google! Just think how many libraries this could represent in less fortunate countries. A classroom in Mali or Chad could have one computer and Internet access and it would be like giving them the largest library in the world--for free!
*That* is advancement.
Just think about the public interest, folks. There is more than one side to the picture.
I'm inclined to agree. I'm perturbed by a sentence in today's Herald article by Geoff Cumming: 'As for internet users, it benefits only Americans - Google would be vulnerable to lawsuits if it extended access to other countries.' It would be a tragedy if this was how things played out.
A possible analogy. Over the last couple of years I've downloaded rather a lot of music from emusic.com, much of it obscure, much of it by emerging artists. Last month emusic excluded new subscribers from outside north America and Europe, simultaneously with signing up their first major label, Sony. A coincidence?
We shd not forget that its Internet only which connected us......And we r criticizing.......it's not gud it's not gud at all.....
Debera
Cash Online Get Easy cash at your door step
Post a Comment