Judge rejects Google book deal
By Diane Bartz |
March 24, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A United States judge rejected a US$125 million settlement between Google Inc and authors that would have let the company publish millions of books online to create the world's largest digital library.
New York Judge Denny Chin said on Tuesday the deal gave Google a significant competitive advantage and "would simply go too far" in giving it the power to digitize all copyrighted works and sell subscriptions to them online without explicit permission.
Google has scanned roughly 12 million books from some of the country's finest libraries, in what it has said was an effort to provide easier access to the world's knowledge.
It was sued in 2005 by the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers for violating copyright laws, but reached a settlement by agreeing to pay US$125 million to people whose copyrighted books have been scanned, and to locate and share revenue with the authors who have yet to come forward.
Still, some critics contended that the deal gave Google an unfair competitive advantage and broke antitrust law. Chin - a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals who heard the case while he sat in district court - agreed on both counts.
"The ASA (amended settlement agreement) would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case," Chin wrote in rejecting the deal.
He urged Google and authors and publishers to amend their settlement to only include books whose copyright owners have agreed to the arrangement, rather than a blanket deal that would require authors to "opt out" should they not want their scanned books to be sold online.
Chin rejected the settlement "without prejudice," meaning a revised pact could be submitted.
Critics of the proposed settlement also include Amazon.com Inc, which sells the Kindle digital reader that would not be compatible with Google's library, and Microsoft Corp. Sony Corp, which makes an e-reader compatible with Google's software, favors the pact.
The Justice Department is also looking into the deal, and has said it might violate antitrust and copyright law.
The government focused on a group of books often described as "orphan works" because they are still in copyright but the rights holder cannot be found. The settlement gives Google the right to market these works.
New York Judge Denny Chin said on Tuesday the deal gave Google a significant competitive advantage and "would simply go too far" in giving it the power to digitize all copyrighted works and sell subscriptions to them online without explicit permission.
Google has scanned roughly 12 million books from some of the country's finest libraries, in what it has said was an effort to provide easier access to the world's knowledge.
It was sued in 2005 by the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers for violating copyright laws, but reached a settlement by agreeing to pay US$125 million to people whose copyrighted books have been scanned, and to locate and share revenue with the authors who have yet to come forward.
Still, some critics contended that the deal gave Google an unfair competitive advantage and broke antitrust law. Chin - a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals who heard the case while he sat in district court - agreed on both counts.
"The ASA (amended settlement agreement) would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case," Chin wrote in rejecting the deal.
He urged Google and authors and publishers to amend their settlement to only include books whose copyright owners have agreed to the arrangement, rather than a blanket deal that would require authors to "opt out" should they not want their scanned books to be sold online.
Chin rejected the settlement "without prejudice," meaning a revised pact could be submitted.
Critics of the proposed settlement also include Amazon.com Inc, which sells the Kindle digital reader that would not be compatible with Google's library, and Microsoft Corp. Sony Corp, which makes an e-reader compatible with Google's software, favors the pact.
The Justice Department is also looking into the deal, and has said it might violate antitrust and copyright law.
The government focused on a group of books often described as "orphan works" because they are still in copyright but the rights holder cannot be found. The settlement gives Google the right to market these works.
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