Open Book Alliance and Others Join in Submitting Letter to House Judiciary Committee

Members of the Open Book Alliance and several other organizations today joined together in submitting a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, urging it to carefully review and scrutinize the proposed Google Book Settlement and its implications for authors, copyright holders, schools, libraries and the public. 

The letter, which was organized by the Open Book Alliance, was delivered to House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Conyers and Committee member Rep. Lamar Smith in advance of the hearing tomorrow concerning the proposed settlement. 

The letter was signed by more than 20 organizations, including all 11 members of the Open Book Alliance, showing the breadth and depth of opposition to the proposed settlement.

EU Holds Hearing on Google Book Settlement

As opposition to the Google Books Settlement flows in from all corners of these United States, major players in Europe also had their chance to express their problems with the scheme in recent days.  Both France and Germany have officially registered their objection to the deal.  A French minister stated plainly:  “Google will have a monopoly digitalising European orphan works without permission.”

Yesterday, the European Commission held a hearing on the deal.  Testifying was Open Book Alliance co-founder Peter Brantley, who noted:

“We believe that the books rights registry essentially functions as a cartel.  Google can exploit all books via U.S. class-action. Competitors would be unable to access orphan works and cannot develop products and services matching their database and comprehensive services.  With Google granted a monopoly to unclaimed works, it would exercise a monopoly over subscriptions for the most comprehensive collection of books available.”

As All Things Digital’s Digital Daily says today:  “Seems Google’s effort to establish a de facto worldwide copyright regime isn’t going to be quite as easy as the company had hoped.” 

Open Book Alliance Files Brief Countering Google Book Settlement

This morning the Open Book Alliance filed a brief with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York countering the proposed Google Book Settlement.  Here’s an excerpt: 
  
“Google and the plaintiff publishers secretly negotiated for 29 months to produce a horizontal price fixing combination, effected and reinforced by a digital book distribution monopoly.  Their guile has cleared much of the field in digital book distribution, shielding Google from meaningful competition.
 
“The parties now seek the Court’s formal blessing to fix prices, restrain competition, and retard technological advancement.  More specifically, they seek waivers in the enforcement of both our nation’s antitrust laws (to create a horizontal cartel of thousands of book publishers through the contrivance of class certification) and the nation’s copyright laws (to sell for their own benefit orphan books they do not own).  The parties argue that the evils of price-fixing and monopoly necessarily attend the creation of their new product – that there will be no universal library and bookstore without stifling competition. But that is not so.  There are far less onerous alternatives. For example, through the simple expedient of compulsory licensing, a technique well known and successfully employed in antitrust, many of the competitive problems associated with the parties’ scheme can be avoided.”
 
The full brief can be found here.

National Writers Union Joins Open Book Alliance

The Open Book Alliance keeps growing; today, we are excited to welcome the National Writers Union to the effort. The NWU press release can be found here.

There are now 11 academic, professional, and industry organizations that have united to inform policy makers and the public about the serious legal, competitive, and policy issues the settlement proposal presents.

The NWU is the nation’s only labor union and advocacy organization for freelance writers in all genres, media, and formats.  In addition to print media writers, NWU represents electronic writers and editors of blogs, Web sites and e-newsletters. The NWU is affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW), which is a member of the AFL-CIO. 

NWU president Larry Goldbetter said…

“Google’s book scanning project is one the largest cases of copyright infringement since the United States Constitution was adopted in 1789. The multibillion-dollar corporation scanned more than seven million different books without permission from the copyright owners. In an attempt to placate its victims, Google is throwing some crumbs to writers. It’s a bad deal. Along with the other members of the Open Book Alliance, the National Writers Union wants to promote a fair alternative to the proposed settlement.”

Is “Trust Us” Good Enough?

Add the Federal Trade Commission to the growing chorus of voices expressing concern about the lack of a detailed privacy policy for Google Books. Chairman Jon Leibowitz stated that the Google Books initiative…

 “…raises serious privacy challenges because of the vast amount of user information that could be collected.” 

In a September 2 letter to Google Global Privacy Counsel Jane Horvath, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said…

“We also agree that it is important for Google to develop a new privacy policy, specific to Google Books, that will apply to the current product, set forth commitments for future related services and features, and preserve commitments made in the existing privacy policy.”

Google’s response essentially boils down to this – Trust Us. Given Google’s silence on specifics — from privacy, to pricing, to access, to competition – we think it’s too important to leave to blind faith that Google would do the right thing for consumers if the settlement is approved.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Joins Open Book Alliance

The Open Book Alliance gained a valuable and respected new member today. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA®) has joined our coalition of librarians, legal scholars, authors, publishers, and technology companies dedicated to countering the proposed Google Book Settlement. 

The full press release can be found in our news section. 

We’re excited that this great non-profit organization, which represents more than 1,500 professional science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals, is joining the effort to counter the Google Book Settlement as it’s currently proposed.

Russell Davis, SFWA president, says that “SFWA is excited to be a part of the Open Book Alliance, and we’re supportive of the work being done by this diverse group. The members of this group makes clear that the concerns about the Google Book Settlement are shared by many organizations from numerous perspectives in publishing and other, related industries.”

The SFWA issued a public statement on August 8, which detailed the organization’s myriad concerns with the settlement. It can be read here.

 Some more details about the SFWA…

 Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world. Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence.  Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

The SFWA becomes the 10^th organization to enter the Alliance, joining:

• Amazon (amazon.com)
• American Society of Journalists and Authors (asja.org)
• Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (clmp.org)
• Internet Archive (archive.org)
• Microsoft (microsoft.com)
• New York Library Association (nyla.org)
• Small Press Distribution (spdbooks.org)
• Special Libraries Association (sla.org)
• Yahoo! (yahoo.com)

We’re seeing a groundswell of support among industry, academic, and professional organizations that have growing concerns over the Google Book Settlement. Some of these concerns are making their way into the media, both here and abroad. The Alliance is focused on continuing to inform policy makers and the public about the serious legal, competitive, and policy issues the settlement proposal presents.

Today’s Reading

The questions and concerns about the Google Book Settlement keep mounting, and those following the issue in the media are making their opinions known.

Today, we find columns by Chris O’Brien of the San Jose Mercury News and Bill Thompson of the BBC that question the wisdom of the settlement.

In O’Brien’s words, “It’s far more important to get it right than to get it done.” And as Thompson says, “If we let Google have its settlement, we will all be the poorer.”