The following excerpt is from an article by Jessica E. Vascellaro and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, published in the the November 16, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal. If the topic interest you, I recommend that you read the whole thing at the WSJ website, as there’s a lot more to it.
I blogged about the upcoming November 9 hearing in early October. At that hearing, the Judge allowed the parties until Friday, November 13, to make their proposal. So Friday, a modified version of the proposed settlement was submitted. Essentially, the latest version cuts millions of foreign titles from Google’s services – and sets up an independent fiduciary to oversee the interests of the rights holders of “orphan works.”
Google Inc. and two author and publisher groups submitted a modified version of a controversial settlement over digital books, but it appears likely the fight over the agreement will continue.
The revised pact submitted late Friday would allow Google to distribute millions of digital books online, but would cut the number of works covered by the settlement by at least half by removing millions of foreign works.
Yet the issue of whether it is fair for the settlement to let Google distribute books whose legal rights owners haven’t been identified—known as orphan works—is still drawing criticism.
People familiar with the matter say the Justice Department remains concerned that the fact the settlement gives Google immunity from lawsuits related to orphan works may be anticompetitive. The department is expected to file its reaction to the modified agreement by early next year.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said the department is reviewing the revised agreement and its investigation into the settlement is “ongoing.”
Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers designed the revised settlement to mollify the Justice Department and other critics who blasted the original settlement as overly broad and anticompetitive. Under that settlement, announced in Oct. 2008, Google would gain permission to distribute and sell millions of digital books online in exchange for sharing revenue with rights holders.
The new settlement keeps the same structure, but makes a number of changes, including adding more pricing options to address concerns about potential price-fixing and clarifying what sort of services Google can offer related to digital books.
