Justice department still has nose in Google Books
By John Lister
The Department of Justice appears to be stepping up its investigation into Google’s deal with the publishing industry to settle a copyright case. Both the search giant and publishing groups are getting formal demands for information, equivalent to subpoenas.
The investigation involves the settlement which ended legal action begun by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers in 2005. They claimed Google had violated copyright by scanning books without permission to use in the Book Search feature.
As part of the settlement, Google agreed to pay $125 million to cover legal costs, compensation and setting up a registry of books to make sure authors get royalties for future use, including letting Google users pay for access to the full text where publishers agree.
However, the DoJ is concerned about a part of the settlement which purportedly gives Google exclusive rights to handle orphan books: those which are in copyright but either they are out of print or the copyright holder can’t be located. Critics of the deal question whether such rights can be given away, as well as claiming Google having exclusive control breaches competition rules.
The DoJ has now issued civil investigative demands to Google, the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and some individual publishers asking for what a lawyer for the Authors Guild described as “a lot of information”. A civil investigative demand is similar to a subpoena in a criminal trial: it doesn’t imply any wrongdoing, but failing to hand over the information can lead to court action.
The demands suggest the DoJ may be taking the investigation much more seriously than previously thought. Even if it doesn’t oppose the settlement, it could delay it coming into effect. The settlement is due to be examined in September but according to a lawyer quoted in the New York Times, the DoJ investigation is now “a big boulder sitting on the judge’s desk” and it’s unlikely the settlement could be approved while the investigation is ongoing.
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