Google's Sergey Brin lashes out at critics of $125m book deal
Bobbie Johnson, San Francisco, guardian.co.uk,

Friday 9 October 2009

Left - Sergey Brin: dismissed criticisms. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has hit out at critics who derailed the company's $125m deal with American publishers to give it the right to digitise millions of books.
The proposal, which promised to create a huge library of material available through Google's website, is currently being renegotiated after the judge in charge of the case received a wide range of objections to the terms of the deal.
In a column published in the New York Times, Brin - who founded the internet giant with Larry Page in 1998 - hit out at those objectors, called many of their accusations "myths" while dismissing other concerns as fantasy.
"This agreement aims to make millions of out-of-print but in-copyright books available either for a fee or for free with ad support, with the majority of the revenue flowing back to the rights holders, be they authors or publishers," he wrote.
"Nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organisation from pursuing their own similar effort. The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns."

Read the full story at The Guardian.