Thousands of Authors Opt Out of Google Digital Library Settlement

E-TIPS® has previously reported on the controversy surrounding the efforts of Google Inc (Google) to digitize copyrighted books for its Internet library project, Google Books. That previous reporting includes the class action suit filed by authors and publishers in 2005 and the order by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Court) for a revised settlement agreement (Revised Agreement) as a result of objections filed by the US Department of Justice to the initial settlement agreement in 2009 (see E-TIPS ® Growing Controversy Over Google’s Digital Library Vol 8, No 9, October 21, 2009). Authors and copyright owners who wish to be excluded from Google’s revised settlement were required to opt out before January 28, 2010. According to a court document related to the settlement, almost 7,000 members of the literary community have in fact opted out of the settlement. Many authors have spoken about their reasons for opting out, including their fear of losing control over how their creative works will be used and the unfairness of the potential for Google to reap huge commercial gains while incurring very little cost. Shortly after the opt-out deadline, the Court heard submissions from interested parties to the class action on the legality of the Revised Agreement. The judge, having already received over 500 written submissions, reserved judgment for a future date. At the hearing, Google argued that the settlement would result in the “greatest library in history”. The US Department of Justice conceded that substantial improvements had been made to the initial settlement agreement. However, it submitted that serious issues remain, as the business arrangements envisioned by the Revised Agreement still confer significant and possibly anti-competitive advantages on a single entity. For a copy of the court document detailing the opt-out process and the list of authors who opted out of the revised settlement, see: http://thepublicindex.org/docs/amended_settlement/Allen_declaration2.pdf For news releases on reactions to the Revised Agreement, see: http://tinyurl.com/ykl4nvv; http://tinyurl.com/yjjnjrn; and http://tinyurl.com/ylb69zj Summary by: Janet Chong