US advices court to reject Google book settlement deal

Asks Google to revise the agreement to address the US concerns

The US Department of Justice has adviced a New York court not to accept Google's settlement deal with authors and publishers that would allow it to create an online library by scanning and digitising books. The Department of Justice added that the parties should be encouraged to continue their discussions to address the concerns regarding class action, copyright and antitrust law.

In its filing, the department proposed that the parties consider a number of changes to the agreement that may help address the US concerns, including imposing limitations on the open-ended provisions for future licensing, eliminating potential conflicts among class members, providing additional protections for unknown rights holders, addressing the concerns of foreign authors and publishers, and eliminating the joint-pricing mechanisms among publishers and authors.

In addition, the department has asked to provide some mechanism by which Google’s competitors can gain comparable access.

The settlement agreement between Google and the authors and publishers aims to resolve copyright infringement claims brought against Google by the Authors Guild and five major publishers in 2005 raised by Google’s efforts to digitally scan books contained in several libraries and make them searchable on the internet. The district court’s hearing on the proposed settlement is scheduled to take place on October 7, 2009.

The Open Book Alliance, a coalition of authors, librarians, and legal scholars created to counter the proposed Google Book Settlement in its current form has responded in support of the filing. The coalition said: “The Open Book Alliance is pleased with the action taken today by the Department of Justice, which we believe will help to protect the public interest and preserve competition and innovation.

“The current settlement proposal would stifle innovation and competition in favor of a monopoly over the access, distribution, and pricing of the largest collection of digital books in the world, and would reinforce an already dominant position in search and search advertising.”

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