[LINK] More about Google Book Settlement

[Jan Whitaker]

[note mention about Google and reader privacy 
issue; it's not just about the writers]

from: Fwd: Publishers Lunch
>Further Opposition to the Google Books Settlement
>As the September 4 date for authors deciding 
>whether to opt in or opt out of the Google Books 
>Settlement, more opposition is being voiced. 
>Scott E. Gant, an author and partner at Boies 
>Schiller & Flexner, a prominent Washington law 
>firm, has launched what the NYT deems "a 
>sweeping opposition" to the Google Books 
>Settlement. "This is a predominantly commercial 
>transaction and one that should be undertaken 
>through the normal commercial process, which is 
>negotiation and informed consent," Gant told the 
>paper. "Google and its partners are "trying to 
>ram this through so that millions of copyright 
>holders will have no idea that this is happening."
>
>Legal experts speculated that Gant's objections 
>- based on the description, not the actual 
>filing - could be "the most direct attack on the 
>agreement so far." But others such as former AAP 
>chair and Bertelsmann executive Richard Sarnoff 
>dismissed Gant's stand, saying that the 
>agreement was an appropriate use of the 
>class-action rules: "The rights holder has 100 
>percent control and choice...If any author 
>doesn't want Google to be marketing or 
>displaying their work, within 48 hours any of 
>these works get pulled by Google."
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218MzI5NDUwfDc2MDIyMjM2fDUxMzU1Ng==&id=2036480>NYT
>
>The San Francisco Chronicle runs their own piece 
>on the opposition to Google Books, looking at 
>how public debate exacerbates confusion on the 
>300-page document. "Smart people, major players 
>that are sophisticated in the ways of 
>publishing, are still at loggerheads," said 
>literary agent Ted Weinstein, and they are 
>"still expressing disagreement about what 
>exactly it will do. That's a problem."
>
>Others, like author Stephen Elliott, are 
>rejecting the deal completely: "The lawyers for 
>the Authors Guild ... understand it, Google 
>understands it, but I don't know any writer who 
>understands it. That's really enough for a 'no' right there."
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218MzI5NDUwfDc2MDIyMjM2fDUxMzU1Ng==&id=2036481>SF 
>Chronicle
>
>The Electronic Frontier Foundation inches closer 
>to legal action against Google on the grounds 
>that the Book Search will violate " the strong 
>protections for reader privacy that traditional 
>libraries and bookstores have fought for and 
>largely won." They "remain hopeful" that Google 
>will comply with privacy concerns but if not, 
>"we're going to ask the Court to require them to 
>do so, both on behalf of EFF, but also on behalf 
>of a number of authors and publishers who 
>recognize that reader privacy is too important to be left behind now."
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218MzI5NDUwfDc2MDIyMjM2fDUxMzU1Ng==&id=2036482>EFF
>
>And in response to William Morris Endeavor's 
>second letter concerning why they urge their 
>authors to opt out of the settlement, Authors 
>Guild head Paul Aiken told PW he stands by the 
>organization's initial response to the agency's 
>first letter and that "authors who don't want to 
>sue Google should stay in the settlement."
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218MzI5NDUwfDc2MDIyMjM2fDUxMzU1Ng==&id=2036483>PW 
>
>
>Google to Partner with France's National Library
>Even as opposition swirls, Google Books 
>continues to make deals with national libraries, 
>the most recent being the Bibliothèque Nationale 
>de France (BNF) after a four-year battle. BNF 
>director of collections Denis Bruckman described 
>the decision to La Tribune as "purely 
>financial", as France provided only €5 million a 
>year for digitising books for Gallica, the 
>national digital library, yet the national 
>library needed up to €80 million (£68 million) 
>just for its works from 1870 to 1940. "We will 
>not stop our own digitising programme, but if 
>Google can enable us to go faster and farther, then why not?"
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218MzI5NDUwfDc2MDIyMjM2fDUxMzU1Ng==&id=2036484>Times 
>(London)
><http://click.publisherslunchdaily.com/cp/redirect.php?u=NTAwNnwzNDQ4OXxqd2hpdEBqYW53aGl0YWtlci5jb218MzI5NDUwfDc2MDIyMjM2fDUxMzU1Ng==&id=2036485>La 
>Tribune


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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