In the short run, the Google Book Search settlement will unquestionably bring about greater access to books collected by major research libraries over the years. But it is very worrisome that this agreement, which was negotiated in secret by Google and a few lawyers working for the Authors Guild and AAP (who will, by the way, get up to $45.5 million in fees for their work on the settlement—more than all of the authors combined!), will create two complementary monopolies with exclusive rights over a research corpus of this magnitude. Monopolies are prone to engage in many abuses.
The Book Search agreement is not really a settlement of a dispute over whether scanning books to index them is fair use. It is a major restructuring of the book industry’s future without meaningful government oversight. The market for digitized orphan books could be competitive, but will not be if this settlement is approved as is.
Group items tagged
Auletta's New Yorker piece is good orientation for thinking about the DoJ case - - The ... - 1 views
-
Interesting piece by one of the speakers at this year's Ethics and Publishing Conference.
-
Greed, greed, greed to supersede the voice of the public. There has to be and needs to be and open eformat. Collusion of any kind by any companies to monopolize is wrong. Why be mad at the government actually doing its job by trying to stamp unfairness. Is this not the land of the free and home of the brave where we are afforded the right to compete on fair terms, or are we just capitalist to the harshest degree, with no wiggle room? Uncle Sam will always be the ref in these battles of monopoly. Does Amazon, Apple, and Goggle with there wholesale pillaging scan scam holding the lions share of the ePub tech and licenses make it a safe place for upstart like I would like to have in the future? I say "NO"!!! Change the game Uncle Sam for the consumer, loyalist, and publisher in this ePub wild west.
Yes We Scan! - 0 views
-
Carll Malamud's campaign to be nominated Public Printer of the United States, head of the Government Printing Office.
Google Book Settlement Links - 0 views
-
A collection of news and comment on the Google Book Settlement
U.S. Opens Inquiry Into Google Books Deal - 0 views
-
Justice Department is looking at the settlement between Google and AAP & the Authors Guild for violations of anti-trust law. The settlement gives Google a huge edge over competitors, at the same time it avoids resolving the Fair Use issues.
Legally Speaking: The Dead Souls of the Google Booksearch Settlement - O'Reilly Radar - 0 views
-
Nice short piece on some of the downside of the Google Books settlement.
1 - 6 of 6
Showing 20▼ items per page