Judge on Google Book Search: Wait and see
The proposed settlement between authors and publishers and Google over its Book Search service has finally made it into a courtroom, but the judge says he won’t be issuing an immediate ruling at the end of the hearing. Perhaps appropriately, he says it will take some time to read and digest the written submissions.
Judge Denny Chin told the Manhattan courtroom that “I have an open mind. I’m going to listen carefully. I’ll ask a few questions.” He noted that “Voluminous [written[ materials have been submitted.”
The hearing is only scheduled to take place today, though in theory as many as 28 organizations could give oral evidence.
The proposed deal involves Google paying $125 million to set up a registry of copyright for digital titles. Critics say that would give it unfairly uncompetitive control over digital publishing. There are also legal questions over whether the company can or should be given powers over books where the copyright holder can’t be identified or traced.
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