14 DAY TRIAL // One of Google's most controversial projects, Google Books, is facing increased opposition and some major players and competitors like Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon are banding together to stop the approval of a settlement deal that allows the search giant to provide and sell copyrighted books that are out of print. The settlement is still being investigated by the US Department of Justice and is facing a court hearing in the coming months.
Last year Google managed to reach a settlement deal with some publishing associations and authors allowing the company to digitize books that may still be under copyright but are out of print. These books would be very hard to get a hold of as people would have no way to purchase them, with the only option being hunting them down in libraries.
Google offered to scan these books and include them in its Google Books program, which offers millions of public domain books as well as copyrighted ones available in bookstores for free. Under the settlement the company has the right to sell any out-of-print book and, if the authors or copyright owners can be found, share the profits with them.
A number of companies and organizations have voiced anti-trust concerns over the deal. The non-profit organization Internet Archive, which has been very critical of the settlement, has managed to get a number of big companies to join its cause and, together with prominent Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer Gary L. Reback, plans to present its case in court. Microsoft and Yahoo have confirmed they have joined the alliance but Amazon has declined to comment. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos was, however, very critical, commenting on the deal earlier this summer.
While there has been a lot of criticism of the deal, Google has defended its position saying that its only intention is to make millions of books, which are otherwise mostly unattainable, available to the general public. It also notes that the settlement isn't exclusive and that any other company could make the same kind of deal – scan the books itself and then offer them for sale.