Legal News

Google Yields to Some European Objections to Book Project

By Ashby Jones

For all those who’ve made lists of cases to watch heading into the fall, may we kindly suggest adding the Google Books case, if you haven’t already.

The backstory: Manhattan judge Denny Chin is currently sitting on a settlement reached last year between the search engine giant and publishers that would allow Google to sell digital books online. (A hearing on the case is scheduled for Oct. 7.)

Since the settlement was announced, a chorus of objectors has emerged, many of whom have howled that, were the deal allowed to go forward, Google would be allowed a near-monopoly on the publication of out-of-print books and other titles.

But Google recently yielded — a bit — to the objectors, saying it would limit the out-of-print books it plans to make available online in order to appease European publishers, authors and other copyright holders. Click here for the NYT story; here for an earlier LB post on the Google Books situation.

European opponents have said the deal would give Google too much power, including exclusive rights to sell out-of-print works that remain under copyright, a category that includes millions of books. The settlement before Judge Chin would govern all books covered by copyright in the United States. European publishers are concerned that Google would gain rights to profit from their books in the American market.

For now, Google is appealing to European opponents by clarifying that a digitized version of a book considered out of print in the United States, but still commercially available in Europe, would not be sold online without explicit consent from the European copyright holder.

Google also said in a letter to publishers that it had offered European publishers representation on a board to oversee a "book rights registry," which will distribute royalties from digital book sales under the plan proposed by the settlement.

"As we said, we listen carefully to all concerns of stakeholders around the globe and work hard to achieve the common goal of bringing back to life millions of lost books in a way that serves the interest of all," Google said in a statement.

But folks still remain concerned, it seems. David Wood, a lawyer representing Icomp, the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, a mostly Europe-based industry group backed by Microsoft that is opposed to the proposed settlement, said the concessions showed that European interests could be accommodated, but far more needed to be done to ease ongoing concerns.

"There are widespread concerns that the settlement leads to monopolization in digital access to online access and sales of books in Europe and in other parts of the world as well as effects on other markets, such as search and search advertising," he said.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 08, 2009 (boomark / email).