Video: Gary Reback at D Is For Digitize Conference

Open Book Alliance co-founder and noted antitrust attorney Gary Reback recently appeared at D Is For Digitize, an event hosted by Professor James Grimmelman at New York Law School. His panel, called “A Is For Antitrust”, examined the Google Book Settlement case, and the Department of Justice filing, in the context of whether it violates antitrust regulation.

The New York Law School has posted video of this panel and others on its site. Gary’s 15 minute talk is at the start of this segment. In a short and compelling presentation, Gary summarizes the “old” arguments about why the Google Book Settlement may violate antitrust law, and then moves on to other issues that aren’t getting as much attention — the impact on other markets, such as search; bundling as a way of controlling content that gets to consumers; and the fact that we somehow ended up with just one database of books content, provided by a single vendor.

Gary sums up his presentation with the following point:

“The antitrust issues in this matter are not limited to just display. There are big issues that affect a lot of markets. I think that the antitrust division is now engaged in a wide ranging investigation to calibrate the effect on those other markets. And I think the judge is going to need to give the antitrust division time to complete that investigation.”