Google Facing Increasing Scrutiny From Justice Dept. Over Book Deal

Financial Times:

Google confirmed on Tuesday that it has come under the scrutiny of both the Department of Justice and a number of state attorneys general over a proposed deal with book publishers to put millions of books online.

Read the whole story: Financial Times

Comments

[geithnertookmymoney]

02:30 PM on 06/10/2009

Having said that, unless we rethink the way we use our wealth, this world is doomed. al-Waleed bin Talal, however he came by his wealth is in a position to make a difference. Instead he chooses conspicuous self-consumption.
next shoe to drop real soon...hyperinflation..market tanking..sell now

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[springtorrent]

12:28 PM on 06/10/2009

the obama economy is all about mediocrity. if you are a successful company like google, you must be a monopoly and must be regulated. in this instance, it is irrelevant that google helps people sells books they would never sell otherwise or provides access to literature to educate people or provides exposure to literature that would not occur otherwise. before you know it, the obama admin will be claiming google's hiring practices are highly discriminatory because it only employs the brightest. the obama admin better be careful what it wishes for. an economy of mediocrity will not come close to generating the revenue needed to pay for all of his wonderful programs.

[artsboy]

12:07 PM on 06/10/2009

Copyright laws need overhauling? To see the ultimate in "author protection," check out almost any copy of the bible and you will find it is carries a copyright. Even some editions of the King James version.

[themodernleader]

02:23 AM on 06/10/2009

Monopoly has became engrained and accepted as our economic system becomes bloated with inefficency and dishonest reporting. Monopoly has corrupted our politics such that nothing worthwhile is enacted into law. America has become a private reserve for unwonted wealth and foreign ownership.

[Paw1]

06:35 AM on 06/10/2009

So what's the alternative in this case, ML? Keep these out of print volumes unavailable until a dozen other tech companies decide how to distribute them? At least Google has come up with a solution that compensates the authors and publishers of these books, while hopefully increasing the desire to read among the young people that will use this technology.

Agree with you in principle about monopoly in general, but not when the monopoly in question has the right idea.

[jcwtts1]

12:24 PM on 06/10/2009

I want the books, I want access to them. If Google is wiling to digitize them I think it is a great thing. I have used this service multiple times, I even, when my library couldn't get me a copy of two books, used the excerpts for a piece I was writing, citing both the author and the location where I found the books and passages. We are in the 21st century and everything is coming to the net. Imagine having accces to the rarest books in the world, to entire archives of the complete works of Dickens, Whitman, Hurston et al. Everyone should have access to these works. And just for the record, inner city and rural communities have an immediate need for this kind of access.

J

[breakingpoint]

01:38 AM on 06/10/2009

copyright laws need to be drastically changed, back to the the Statute Of Anne.

[SangZe]

07:46 AM on 06/10/2009

You are right. The whole business of "intellectual rights" has gotten far out of hand, primarily because of the greed of the middlemen handling someone's hard work. Except for a few, arts/writers seldom gain much financially from their efforts.