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Report: Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon to Fight Google Book Deal
- From: Brian Warkoczeski
- Date: Fri Aug 21 08:22:06 2009
Report: Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon to Fight Google Book Deal
By Agam Shah, IDG News Service
Aug 20, 2009
www.yahoo.com
Microsoft, Amazon.com and Yahoo plan to join a consortium to fight a
proposed settlement Google has made with authors and publishers over its
Google Book Search service, according to a report published in The New
York Times.
The coalition, which is being formed by the Internet Archive and
tentatively called the Open Book Alliance, will be announced in the next
couple of weeks, according to the news report. It plans to oppose the
agreement in briefs to the court and tell the U.S. Department of Justice
that the deal is anticompetitive.
Some library associations and groups representing authors also plan to
join the coalition, according to the report.
In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers
sued Google, alleging the company had infringed copyrights by scanning
books without always getting the approval of authors and publishers. The
parties reached a tentative settlement last October that would give
Google the rights to digitize and sell millions of books.
Both the parties have said the settlement could help authors monetize
digital work and readers to access millions of out-of-print books. But
critics have argued that the settlement could have widespread
implications and limit competition in the digital book space. The
Department of Justice is investigating the deal for possible violations
of the Sherman Act, an antitrust law.
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