Thousands Of Authors Opt Out Of Google Book Settlement

From The Guardian:

Some 6,500 writers, from Thomas Pynchon to Jeffrey Archer, have opted out of Google's controversial plan to digitise millions of books.

Former children's laureates Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Jacqueline Wilson, bestselling authors Jeffrey Archer and Louis de Bernières and critical favourites Thomas Pynchon, Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson have all opted out of the controversial Google book settlement, court documents have revealed.

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Google Digital Library Faces Outcry At NYC Hearing

From My Way News:

NEW YORK (AP) - Google's effort to create the world's largest library by scanning millions of books for use on the Internet faces a courtroom fight as authors, foreign governments, corporate rivals and even the U.S. Department of Justice line up to challenge it.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin already has read more than 500 submissions about a $125 million settlement aimed at ending a pair of 2005 lawsuits brought by authors and publishers and clearing legal obstacles to a gigantic online home for digital books.

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Justice Dept. to Google Books: Close, But No Cigar

From Epicenter:

Google’s plan to digitize the world’s books into a combination research library and bookstore has hit another snag, in the form of a U.S. Justice Department statement that “despite substantial progress made, issues remain” with the proposed settlement agreement of the class action lawsuit The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc.

The Justice Department joins key members of The Authors Guild in applauding some of the changes Google and the guild have made to their proposed agreement, submitted in September, including the elimination of Google’s right to the books for unspecified future uses, the creation of a new position to represent unknown rights holders, and a mechanism allowing competing companies to license Google’s library to offer competing products.

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Feds Still Unhappy With Google Deal

From CBS News:

Book Battle Continues As DOJ Frets About Threat to Stifle Competition, Undermining of Copyright Laws.

(AP) The U.S. Justice Department still thinks a proposal to give Google the digital rights to millions of hard-to-find books threatens to stifle competition and undermine copyright laws, despite revisions aimed at easing those concerns.

The opinion filed Thursday in New York federal court is a significant setback in Google's effort to win approval of a 15-month-old legal settlement that would put the Internet search leader in charge of a vast electronic library and store. A diverse mix of Google rivals, consumer watchdogs, academic experts, literary agents, state governments and even foreign governments have already urged U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to reject the agreement.

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Google Books Project Found Guilty Of Violating Copyright By French Court

A number of French publishers spent three years fighting
Google's plan to scan and sell their books online

From The Daily Mail:

Google was found guilty by a French court today of violating copyright by digitising books and putting extracts online.

The search engine company initially started scanning books without permission for its controversial online library project. They were forced to strike deals in the U.S and the UK after hundreds of complaints.

In France, major publishers issued a legal challenge arguing the digital service would lead to publishers and authors losing out.

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Europe vs. Google: The Next Chapter

A scanner passes over a book as part of Google Inc.'s project to create digital versions of all the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world. Carlos Osorio / AP

From Time Magazine:

Google may be valued at more than $185 billion and boast millions of users, but that doesn't mean the Internet giant is any match for the diminutive French President Nicolas Sarkozy. On Dec. 8, Sarkozy warned Google he would not allow France to be "stripped" of its literary heritage, an apparent reference to Google's enormous book-digitizing project. "We won't let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is," Sarkozy said during a round-table discussion in eastern France. "We are not going to be stripped of what generations and generations have produced in the French language, just because we weren't capable of funding our own digitization project."

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