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Google Files a Revised Books Settlement Proposal
At 14 minutes to midnight last night, Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers filed a revised settlement agreement with a US district court in New York. Here is the blog post of Dan Clancy, Google Books engineering director. Google has provided an outline of the differences from the original settlement (PDF) and a FAQ (PDF); the full revised settlement (PDF) is also available. In brief, the changes include limiting the settlement to books published in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia; a court-appointed fiduciary to represent the rights of orphaned works' (undiscovered) rightsholders; and further opening up Google's library to competitors in ways that don't favor Google. The new plan was immediately criticized as a "sleight of hand" by the Open Book Alliance, a consortium of Google's opponents including Microsoft and Amazon. The Internet Archive said, "None of the proposed changes appear to address the fundamental flaws illuminated by the Department of Justice and other critics that impact public interest."
"A lot of people really do not like the idea of pictures their houses and gardens being put on a globally accessible site, linked to map information."
Well, they can do something about it: Google Street View has to reshoot in Japan.
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1. I am the very reverse of trusting of corporations be it Google or AIG. I one case Google tries to be effective, profitable, equitable and fair. NO I don't work for them but I admire most of what they do! AIG, are on the other hand, along with Moody and most of the rest of Wall St., crooks.
2. The Mickey Mouse example says that the man who wrote that sarcasm is invisible here on Slashdot, a 12 year copyright on Mickey would make Disney do some good new work, which they mightily fear, and would be good for the kids. I am sure they would like a change.
3. If I was a novalist or muscician or programmer and it took me 10 years to get anywhere I would listen to the market. And, I said nothing about payment.
4. If you want Privacy, get privacy laws passed by your Congress. ALL YOU IDIOTS in the US need to get off your fat backsides and control your Government, deal with privacy, copyright, tort-reform and foi. We already have ours, in place in Schweiz, and Google is complying with them, and the Bundesrat cant shaft us the way your Executive/Congress does you, daily.
5. Your AIDS shot is particularly dumb, you are addressing exactly the wrong end of the issue, Googling AIDS, or for that matter YOU BOY ANAL SEX says nothing about you, your AIDS status, or for that matter, anything else, and if you object to anything it can only be to publication. The example is not contrived since a Nationalrat in Mitteland was arrested in Thailand for sexuell misbraucht recently. His name was not in Blick.
Basically, get off your high horse, stop blaming others for STUPID US laws an legal process, fix YOUR government
and let the rest of us, our students and universities get on while poeple like you continue to force the USA into economic decline.
I thought Google was overreaching in scanning copyrighted books without permission--but let's leave that aside.
How is the class being betrayed? (I was one of those negotiating on behalf of the class.)
If you're concerned about books that are in print, these are not involved. The settlement does not affect them, unless the author and publisher both choose to get involved with Google.
In the case of out of print books, it's true that the settlement enables Google to make them available (more than just search). But that's good for everyone. The benefit for readers is obvious: these books were often hard to find; now they'll be available on line. But authors benefit, too: these books were commercially dead (by definition). Now, they come back to life. If there's any money to be made, it goes mainly to the rightholders.