Voices
Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on February 17, 2010 at 4:55 pm PT
After about a year of delays, a federal judge will finally hold a hearing Thursday over the settlement Google struck with authors and publishers that would allow it to distribute millions of books online.
The battle lines for and against the settlement have been drawn for months, as objectors and supporters have filed round after round of briefs with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.
Voices
Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on February 12, 2010 at 12:00 am PT
Google filed a strong defense of its digital books settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, a week before a federal judge is scheduled to hold a hearing in the protracted copyright case.
The filing is routine and reiterates arguments the search giant has repeatedly made to defend its 2008 settlement, which allows it to distribute millions of books it scanned online in exchange for sharing revenue with rights holders.
John Paczkowski in News on November 16, 2009 at 12:40 pm PT
Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers have submitted a new version of their digital book settlement, and while it makes concessions to the Department of Justice and others who have raised concerns about how it may violate antitrust laws, the new proposal doesn’t seem to have appeased all of its opponents.
John Paczkowski in News on October 7, 2009 at 10:00 am PT
November 9. That’s the day on which Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers are to submit an amended version of their book settlement, one that addresses concerns that it might give them unfair advantage over other digital libraries or violate copyright laws abroad.
John Paczkowski in News on September 23, 2009 at 10:38 am PT
Looks like the Google Books Settlement won’t be hitting the shelves until later this year–at the earliest. Days after the U.S. Justice Department criticized the deal and the forward-looking business arrangements it seeks to create as cause for “significant legal concern,” Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers requested a delay in a judge’s final “fairness hearing” scheduled for Oct. 7 so that they can amend it.
Voices
Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on September 8, 2009 at 3:23 pm PT
Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer Gary Reback made his case against the Google Books settlement Tuesday, arguing that the settlement is illegal but could be remedied if the Justice Department insists that Google license the books it scanned to competitors.
John Paczkowski in News on August 26, 2009 at 1:07 pm PT
The Open Book Alliance–or “Sour Grapes Alliance,” as Google likes to call it–formally launched Wednesday afternoon, debuting a new Web site, as well as the manifesto with which it is challenging Google’s settlement with authors and publishers.
Voices
Marisa Taylor, Tech Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on May 19, 2009 at 12:10 pm PT
Will the settlement agreement between Google’s Book Search Library Project and authors and publishers put Google in monopoly territory?
That’s the argument that Brewster Kahle, co-founder of the Internet Archive, made in an op-ed in the Washington Post, in which he writes that the settlement “provides a new and unsettling form of media consolidation.”
John Paczkowski in News on April 29, 2009 at 9:27 am PT
Google’s gone and run afoul of the Department of Justice again. Its interest piqued by the growing outcry over the company’s proposed book-search settlement with authors and publishers, the agency has opened an inquiry.
