Google Books: World's Largest Digital Library Struck Down by Judge
source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-Books-Settlement-Struck-Down-for-Enabling-Mon...
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A federal judge dealt a severe blow Tuesday to Google's plans for making millions of out-of-print books available online, part of an ambitious plan to create the world's biggest digital library, after concluding that a tentative legal settlement was anti-competitive and unfair to some authors.
U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin cited a litany of objections to the proposed settlement of a 2005 class-action lawsuit by major book industry groups, which raised groundbreaking issues of technology and copyright law. At the same time, he acknowledged the social value of what Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called an effort to "unlock the wisdom" of countless authors whose works are no longer widely distributed.
"The creation of a universal digital library would benefit many," Chin wrote in his 48-page decision. But in rejecting the agreement, he said it "would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission."
The New York-based judge did not kill the Google Books project outright; instead he left the door open to further negotiations and encouraged Google to consider using only the works of authors and other copyright holders who have "opted in" to the project, rather than putting the burden on them to "opt out" if they don't want to participate.
Google has previously said that approach was unworkable. The company said Tuesday that it was disappointed.
Google has already scanned more than 12 million books since it announced in 2004 that it had negotiated agreements to digitize the collections of several major university libraries and make those works available online. Google users may currently search its online collection and view short excerpts of those books, if they are still under copyright, or full versions of old books whose copyrights have expired.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-Books-Settlement-Struck-Down-for-...
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_17673453
http://books.google.com/
U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin cited a litany of objections to the proposed settlement of a 2005 class-action lawsuit by major book industry groups, which raised groundbreaking issues of technology and copyright law. At the same time, he acknowledged the social value of what Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called an effort to "unlock the wisdom" of countless authors whose works are no longer widely distributed.
"The creation of a universal digital library would benefit many," Chin wrote in his 48-page decision. But in rejecting the agreement, he said it "would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission."
The New York-based judge did not kill the Google Books project outright; instead he left the door open to further negotiations and encouraged Google to consider using only the works of authors and other copyright holders who have "opted in" to the project, rather than putting the burden on them to "opt out" if they don't want to participate.
Google has previously said that approach was unworkable. The company said Tuesday that it was disappointed.
Google has already scanned more than 12 million books since it announced in 2004 that it had negotiated agreements to digitize the collections of several major university libraries and make those works available online. Google users may currently search its online collection and view short excerpts of those books, if they are still under copyright, or full versions of old books whose copyrights have expired.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-Books-Settlement-Struck-Down-for-...
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_17673453
http://books.google.com/
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UtopianSky
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How on earth would it "give Google a significant advantage over competitors"?
No one claimed Google would have exclusive rights to make a digital library of out of print books. If Amazon, Microsoft, or anyone else wants to do it also let them.
- 1 year ago
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UtopianSky
