April 7, 2009

Still more opposition to Google-AAP-Authors Guild deal

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A day after a MobyLives report about public advocacy groups coming forward to protest the settlement between Google and the Assocation of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, yet another public advocacy group has come forward to, well, protest the settlement between Google and the Assocation of American Publishers and the Authors Guild.

As Jim Milliot reports in a Publishers Weekly story, Consumer Watchdog has “sent a letter to the Justice Department asking the department to delay the settlement, which still needs court approval.” The letter says the agreement ““furthers the narrow agenda of Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers” and was reached with “no one representing the public interest in what Consumer Watchdog calls an agreement that will transform publishing.”

In particular the group cites the so-called “most favored nation clause” (which “guarantees that Google would be offered the same terms from the Book Rights Registry that any competitor might receive”), and the way the agreement handles orphan — out-of-print — books. (“Consumer Watchdog wants the protections granted to Google about potential exposure to rightsholders who may file claims to works that appear in a database extended to any company that wants to compete with Google under the same terms given to Google.”)

“Other groups are expected to file challenges to the settlement before the May 5 deadline,” says Milliot.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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