Videos from Last Week’s House Judiciary Committee Hearing

Last week’s hearing on the Google Book Settlement controversy, hosted by the House Judiciary Committee, had a number of moments that demonstrated the concern over and discontent with the proposed settlement. Here are videos of a few of the highlights:

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) addresses concerns of copyright issues and antitrust implications of the deal between Google and its partners:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Marybeth Peters, U.S. Register of Copyrights, questions whether the entire settlement itself encroaches upon Congress’ responsibilities:

Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) shares his opposition for the settlement by pointing out that the public interest is not being served by this private deal:

Finally, Paul Misener of Amazon.com talks about Google getting an “opt-out” monopoly, something that no other company would get as part of this settlement, and that it is simply just not true that this is a non-exclusive deal: