Custom publishing website SharedBook on May 27 invited interested parties to document their views on the legal controversy surrounding Google's book search project. "Until now, discussions on the Google Book Settlement have been taking place across fragmented forums," SharedBook chief executive Caroline Vanderlip wrote in a message online at gbs.sharedbook.com.
"Now, for the first time, policymakers, businesspeople, scholars, journalists and others have the opportunity to come together and engage in a granular, contextual dialogue on this important topic." The online forum is intended as a focal point for discussion about the settlement in advance of an October 7 "fairness hearing" to be held in a US federal court, which is to decide whether the deal is acceptable.
Google's settlement with US authors and publishers over its book scanning project still needs the green light from a US judge but it may first have to pass muster with the US Justice Department.
US antitrust regulators have reportedly taken an interest in the controversial settlement which would allow California-based Google to create the world's largest digital library and online bookstore. The justice department is said to be examining antitrust implications of last year's settlement between Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Alleging copyright infringement, the Authors Guild and AAP filed a class action lawsuit against the Internet search and advertising giant in 2005 over its scanning of millions of books through its Google Book Search service.
In the settlement, Google agreed to establish an independent "Book Rights Registry" which will provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.
One of the biggest concerns of opponents of the settlement, however, are the millions of so-called "orphan" books, out-of-print works whose copyright holder cannot be found.
Opponents of the settlement have argued that it gives Google an exclusive license to scan, sell and profit from "orphan" books. Among the groups making this argument is the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based non-profit which has its own digital scanning project. US District Court Judge Denny Chin has set a September 4 deadline for authors and their heirs or publishers to decide whether they want to be included in the settlement.
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