“French publishers say Google has never negotiated with them about its digitisation scheme even though the millions of works held in US libraries already scanned by the company include thousands of French titles.” Excellent reporting by Financial Times on the new twist in the Google Books fiasco. Welcome to France, Mr. Schmidt. Here’s a tip: […]
Now that it appears that Google has been dealt a major setback in the Google Books case, questions are raised about how effectively Google has been handling its—what would you call it? “massive”?–exposure to copyright infringement litigation from a financial accounting and Sarbanes–Oxley perspective. It would not be unusual to see personal liability for CEOs […]
More on this later, but the United States opposes the Google Books settlement. So kind it is almost sarcastic: “[I]t should not be a surprise that the parties did not anticipate all of the difficult legal issues such anambitious undertaking might raise….As presently drafted, theProposed Settlement does not meet the legal standards this Court must […]
Marybeth Peters gave her usual cogent analysis at a congressional hearing last week, this time on the Google Books case. It is well worth a close reading, both for this case and for its ameliorative powers in general (since we seem to have a pandemic of federal judges being infected with the de facto compulsory […]
It would appear that Google is starting to crack under the pile of opposition coming from European authors–don’t you believe it. This is the typical condescending sneer from smarter-than-thou smarty pants Googlers. You can almost hear Lessig’s advice echoing in the nonproposal proposal. The Financial Times reports that “A spokesperson for Google on Monday said: […]
Today is the opt-out deadline for the Google Books settlement and the Leviathan of Moutain View has had a busy week for enemy-making. The Syndicat National de l’Edition, which is the French book publishers association, and the Federal Republic of Germany, both filed briefs opposing the settlement on similar grounds–it violates every copyright treaty known […]
An excellent article on Google Books from the New Zealand Herald: “‘The deal is cultural imperialism on a par with the 1980s US flexing of military might over nuclear ship visits, says the Auckland branch secretary of the Society of Authors, Adrian Blackburn. ” … This monopolistic pre-emptive grab by a hugely wealthy US business […]
In one of the best summaries I’ve seen on the implications of the Google Books settlement for ex-US rights holders, the New Zealand Society of Authors told its members: “Unless New Zealand authors or publishers formally opt out of the settlement, or formally opt in but request Google not to digitize and/or display their books, […]
Not surprisingly, the William Morris Endeavor talent agency has advised its clients–twice–to opt out of the Google Books settlement: “There is an important right that is relinquished under the terms of the Settlement that the Authors Guild does not adequately address. In addition to waiving their right to sue Google for infringement, they waive, again […]
According to a senior Google executive Google wants “a legislative solution that fixes the problems concerning orphan works is the best outcome for everyone with a stake in book digitization, and Google is leaning on Congress to get such a law passed.” Here we go again…. Remember all our overseas readers, the last time around […]
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