Cracks in Google Books Settlement Proponent Efforts
It was just late last week that the Department of Justice shot holes through the proposed settlement of the Google Book class action suit. I mentioned that the opposition was so thorough as to likely require a complete overhaul of the agreement to pass muster (and avoid an antitrust investigation). Well, seems that's how things are working out as the parties seek a postponement of the October hearing on whether to approve the proposed settlement:
In a statement, Google has this to say: "The plaintiffs moved for an adjournment of the final Fairness Hearing, currently scheduled for October 7. We are considering the points raised by the Department of Justice and others, and we look forward to addressing them as the court proceedings continue."Clearly the DOJ objections alone were enough to rattle the combination of Google, the publishers, and the one writer organization that were parties to the negotiations. But if you read through them, it becomes clear that the changes necessary are fundamental in nature, particularly given that a new proposed settlement -- because that is ultimately what we're talking about -- will drastically cut how much material can be automatically included, what rights Google would have to works going forward, and how much control the combination of Google and the registry set up to administer the publishing arrangement would have.
From one view, it seemed as through Google had a brilliant stroke in going the route of flaunting copyright and using that action to force others to the bargaining table. As I said last year:
Chances are the entire deal is going to get extremely messy before it even starts. And if the authors are left on their own, Google may well get to do what it wants, including profiting from using intellectual property it doesn't own simply by that old rejoinder, "So, sue."But even then the weak points of the settlement were glaring, including that publishers might not have the standing to negotiation for authors of out-of-print books, to say nothing of the other criticisms that have been leveled. Suddenly Google's coup has flown the coup. There's a good chance that its competitors will get feet in the door and the potential advantage that the company seemed to have in grasp is now gone. Maybe it's another example of how, once you get past search advertising, Google has been pretty short on corporate successes, at least if you think that a company should be making money.
Image via stock.xchng user abdulrahma, site standard license.