AllThingsD » Gary Reback

Google's Mission: To Digitize the World's Books and Make Them Universally Monetizable by Google

John Paczkowski — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:40:47 +0000

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 proposal doesn’t seem to have appeased all of its opponents. Among the settlement’s changes:

Orphan works–books whose copyright holders are unknown–will be overseen by an independent trustee who will administer their licensing, not by Google.
Books published outside the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia will be excluded from the settlement.

Those are substantive alterations, but they clearly haven’t placated critics who accuse Google (GOOG) of attempting an “end-run around copyright law as we know it.”

The Open Book Alliance–a coalition whose members include the Internet Archive, Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO)–has blasted the revision twice already, decrying it as “a sleight of hand” intended to distract people from Google’s continued efforts to establish a monopoly over digital content access and distribution.

“The proposed changes fail to address this deal’s fundamental flaws,” Open Book Alliance Co-Chair Gary Reback said in a vitriolic statement. “Despite Google’s effort to spin this deal, it does nothing to promote competition nor does it reform Google’s exclusive access and monopoly hold on this digital database of books. Their proposed ‘unclaimed works fiduciary’ will have zero authority to promote competition or expand access. It is a cynical diversion away from the parties’ continued reliance on the discredited argument that competitors can obtain access through the very means Google did–getting sued for copyright infringement and abusing the class action process. This deal remains rife with anti-trust, class action and copyright violations.”

Antitrust Lawyer Slams Google Book Pact

Jessica E. Vascellaro — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:23:34 +0000

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 (GOOG) license the books it scanned to competitors.

In a court filing on behalf of the Open Book Alliance, a consortium that opposes the settlement, the attorney argues that the settlement between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers gives publishers and Google monopoly control over the pricing of digital books. Reback, who was involved in spurring the Justice Department to bring an antitrust suit against Microsoft in the 1990s, co-founded the consortium along with the Internet Archive, a nonprofit that is trying to create a digital archive of the Web, last month. Many members of the consortium, including the Internet Archive, Amazon.com (AMZN), Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT), have filed their own briefs opposing the settlement too.

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Ganging Up on Google

John Paczkowski — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:00:37 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Internet Archive Announces Everybody-Against-Google Coalition

John Paczkowski — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:30:36 +0000

As the Google Book Search Settlement nears a Sept. 4 deadline for rights-holders to opt out of the deal, some powerful interests are allying to oppose it.

Rallied by the Internet Archive and veteran Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer Gary Reback, Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), the Special Libraries Association, the New York Library Association and the American Society of Journalists and Authors are forming a coalition called the Open Book Alliance. Its purpose: To make the case to an already concerned Justice Department that the $125 million settlement–which will allow Google to digitize some 18 million books–is an anticompetitive restructuring of the book industry and one that could give Google a monopoly on the largest digital library of books in the world.

And it might. There are some who claim the plan grants Google (GOOG) a blanket license on millions of so-called orphan books, works still in copyright but whose copyright owners are unknown.

But Google insists the deal is nonexclusive and says other companies are free to pursue their own agreements with the publishing industry. The company further notes that its efforts will not only restore access to some 10 million out-of-print books that are still under copyright, but provide their authors with a new means of profiting from them. The deal is beneficial, Google contends, to consumers and to the publishing industry.

And to Google as well, because there is always a profit motive to the company’s altruism.

That said, Google does have a point here. Restoring access to millions of books that are today unavailable in any medium is a worthy goal. So is enabling their authors and publishers to once again make a bit of money from them. Is there a better option for the publishing industry at this moment? Allow those works to lie fallow and unmonetized?

[Image Credit: Forrester Magazine]