Google can’t scan all the world’s books and make them available online, a judge said Tues . Using copyright and antitrust arguments, Google’s opponents successfully overturned a $125 million deal between Google and the publishing industry to complete the project. Even though the settlement was rejected, the ruling provided a framework for changes that could result in its ultimate acceptance. Post resource – Google Books ruling based on copyright and antitrust concerns by MoneyBlogNewz.
Settling on Google Books
There was a program called Google Books that was started. The idea of the program is to take all books that have been published and make them accessible on the internet digitally. The Association of American Publishers put together a lawsuit in 2005 with the Authors Guild. The book-scanning project got Google sued. Google paid $125 million in 2008 in a settlement. It agreed to make sure that every time a book was viewed online, a publisher and author would get paid for it. The negotiation has been mired in the legal system as opponents such as Amazon, Microsoft, the Justice Department, copyright experts and some foreign governments argued against it. On Tuesday, Manhattan federal court judge Denny Chin said the Google Books negotiation would solidify the company’s search monopoly and give it the right to exploit published works without the permission of copyright holders.
The orphan works problem
Google Books would be able to digitize any book without permission unless the author and publisher opted out of the agreement due to a provision with Judge Chin objected to the most. It would look better, claims Chin, with an “opt in” choice instead. There was a reason for the opt-out provision though. You will find “orphan works” to be considered. You will find several orphan works. This is when a copyright owner can’t be found or is unknown. Google Books was trying to solve the orphan works problem which makes it so out of print novels are unavailable to the public. Many say that Congress, not a settlement or lawsuit, should be in charge of making the decision on orphan texts.
Concerns on all of the antitrust
Google defends its book-scanning project as an effort to “democratize knowledge” by offering every book ever written, which is about 130 million and counting, in accordance with the company. However the settlement’s opponents also raise antitrust worries, saying no other company is capable of building a library that can compete, freeing Google to gouge consumers for access. Google would be in a position where it would never lose with Google Books having so several novels on the internet. As the battle goes on, Google has scanned about 15 million books. Novels with expired copyrights can be accessed via Google’s Book Search, also as about 20 percent of copyrighted titles Google has licensed from publishers. Sample text could be accessed from copyrighted titles that have not been licensed to Google.
Articles cited
New York Times
nytimes.com/2011/03/23/technology/23google.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Financial Times
ft.com/cms/s/2/f7ee4948-54bf-11e0-b1ed-00144feab49a.html#axzz1HR3IHDr1
PC World
pcworld.com/article/222963/judge_rejects_google_book_deal_over_monopoly_concerns.html
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