Authors and booksellers are lining up to express their dissatisfaction with the revised Google Books legal settlement, which many argue gives the ubiquitous search engine monopoly rights over the dissemination of millions of digitally stored books and tramples all over copyright laws.
Authors and other interested parties had until January 28 to file an objection to the settlement, struck between Google and US authors and publishers in 2008 and modified last year. This was also the last date that authors could opt out of the settlement thus preventing their work from being included in the Google books project.
In November 2008, the parties reached a settlement whereby Google would pay USD125m to resolve the outstanding legal actions in relation to Google's plans to create a huge online digital library of out-of-copyright works and include snippets of some in-copyright books. But in September 2009, the US Department of Justice intervened, arguing that the settlement has "potential for important societal benefits" and advised the parties to revise their agreement.
Under the settlement, holders worldwide of US copyrights can register their works with the new Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.
The settlement was modified in November 2009 to include more pricing options, but many authors, their representatives and publishers are still not happy with the agreement, with a major concern, as expressed by online bookseller Amazon in a legal filing, being that it violates the US Copyright Act.
Others are unhappy that the settlement compels authors to opt-out, rather than opt-in to the agreement, and gives Google an unhealthily dominant position in the global book market.
In a last-minute statement before the deadline to opt out of the settlement, the estate of American writer Richard Wright called the settlement "grievously flawed."
"Copyright law is effectively being amended by a private transaction: a lopsided one in which Google’s wealth helps it dominate the legal playing field," the filing stated.
"Do we really want to anoint Google the dominant force in online book publishing when there are many alternatives out there: alternative entities who did not try to take what is not theirs without asking?" the filing goes on to state.
In the UK, notable authors including J.K. Rowling and Phillip Pullman are also said to have rejected the idea of having their works displayed on Google, although the Society of Authors and the Publishers Association are backing the settlement.
Google argues that the settlement will give internet users unprecedented access to millions of books in the US while giving authors and publishers new ways to distribute their work.
The US District Court of the Southern District of New York still has to decide whether to approve the modified settlement, and Judge Denny Chin has scheduled a 'fairness hearing' for February 18, 2010.
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