http://www.openbookalliance.org Open Book Alliance Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:18:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Comments in this weekend’s San Jose Mercury News by the head of Google’s book search program put an end to all the high falutin’ statements that the effort is about creating the next digital Library of Alexandria. "Obviously, we think there is value in search," Dan Clancy, the ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/03/search-elephant/ Renowned artist Asaf Hanuka produced a creative and thought provoking piece of art to accompany a thoughtful article in California Lawyer magazine on Google’s increasingly disturbing behavior. [caption id="attachment_705" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="(credit: Asaf Hanuka)"][/caption] Hanuka chose to depict an epic battle between a voracious Google monster and heroic authors attempting to ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/03/when-google-attacks/ McMaster University Book Operations Manager Mark Leslie published a thoughtful recap of the ongoing GBS issue in The Mark. Leslie, an author himself, sums up the opinions of many authors as they wait to hear from Judge Chin. So, as the back and forth debates continue over the possibility of a ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/03/sustained-scanning/ The media went into overdrive today as Judge Chin heard closing arguments in his New York courtroom.  Overall, the message of the day is that a broad and diverse collection of stakeholders have major objections to the GBS. A late day AP filing summed up the day, noting ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/oba-media-wrap-up/ More than 25 groups representing authors, publishers, state Attorneys General, foreign governments, consumer advocates and technology companies have convened in New York City this morning to speak in opposition to the most recent Google Books Settlement at a Fairness Hearing in front of Judge Denny Chin of the United States ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/how-many-more-books-has-google-scanned-today/ I’m afraid an awful lot of writers have not really informed themselves. You know, we tend to be sort of busy doing our writing and sort of feeling that if we belong to a group like Authors Guild or something, that they’ll look after it and sort of see ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/le-guin-speaks-out-on-authors-rights/ The Open Book Alliance and many other objectors, including the U.S. Department of Justice, authors, publishers, academics, libraries and privacy advocates from around the world have collectively made the case for rejection of the amended settlement agreement proposed by Google, the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. Despite this ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/responding-to-google%e2%80%99s-request-for-an-amended-google-books-settlement-approval/ The Open Book Alliance today issued the following statement in response to the Department of Justice’s filing with the U.S. District Court: The Open Book Alliance applauds the action taken today by the Department of Justice.  We believe that the DoJ’s Statement of Interest regarding the Google Books Settlement will help ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/responding-to-u-s-department-of-justice-statement-of-interest-regarding-google-books-settlement/ By Gary Reback The latest round of briefing produced yet another profound embarassment – bordering on an outright humiliation – for the parties proposing the Google Book Settlement.  Their original proposal met with a torrent of criticism so intense that Google and the publishers withdrew it and replaced it with an ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/gbs-2-0-objection-roundup/ Congressmen Charlie Gonzalez (TX-20) and Gene Green (TX-29) today announced that they sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder highlighting their questions and concerns about GBS 2.0. The Congressmen were particularly focused on the fact that many authors and publishers who are not part of the class action ... http://www.openbookalliance.org/2010/02/reps-gonzalez-green-ask-doj-to-scrutinize-google-books-settlement/