Google and Amazon: Making Theft and Price-Fixing the Legal Default

For the first time in American history, a single corporation is attempting to gain full ownership of an extraordinary number of books printed during the last century, effectively controlling their dissemination by default without the consent of those who still hold valid copyrights. In early September authors and their representatives ran out of time to invoke ownership of their own writing and opt out of a legally questionable settlement.  The settlement, which is pending in federal court, reveals Google Inc.'s unprecedented attempt to invert the United States copyright structure and monopolize control of a huge swath of intellectual property. 

The current agreement, reached in 2008 between Google, The Authors Guild of America, and the Association of American Publishers has touched off the most vociferous public battle between technology companies since the inception of the Internet.  At stake is supremacy in the coveted marketplace of content ownership and book digitization.  The Justice Department filed strong objections to the settlement last week, registering concerns that Google has violated anti-trust laws by gaining such broad control without legal supervision.  Those concerns resulted in a request by all three parties this week for a postponement of the court’s ruling while they rewrite the agreement.

Online book retailer Amazon.com, Google’s non-profit rival The Internet Archive, Yahoo, Microsoft, and other media companies have joined an umbrella organization called The Open Book Alliance to combat Google’s advance.  In recent weeks they have filed a barrage of complaints to the court and Congress.  Their appeals and public statements have exposed for the first time large areas of legal uncertainty in an industry known for widespread avoidance of public legal battles and legislative interference.

In their legal assault, Amazon appears to have suggested its own involvement in business practices that have widely been considered unethical and potentially illegal.  An Amazon spokesperson told the Associated Press last month that if Google were to gain control of the marketplace his company would no longer be able to obtain low prices for customers by, “playing one publisher off against another." Their statement implies the use of manipulative negotiating practices to receive books at lower wholesale prices than competitors despite the existence of legal precedents that restrict large companies from receiving disproportionately favorable discounts.

The Author’s Guild has also come under fire, with critics questioning the right of an advocacy group to negotiate on behalf of authors who did not seek their support.  If upheld, such a broad invocation of representative power by a guild would be unprecedented in American history.

Compounding the problem is the prevalence of conflicts of interest among board members of nearly every party involved in the litigation.  One particularly disconcerting example involves the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers which currently has three partners serving as board members or advisers to Google or Amazon, including John Doerr who is a board member at all three companies. 

The triumvirate of Kleiner board members also includes former Vice-President Al Gore who is a senior advisor to Google.  Gore’s presence is a reminder of the close proximity between the political establishment that first gave rise to broad Internet use and the now-powerful companies that benefited from government encouraged non-regulation throughout the 1990’s and into this decade.

The rise of these companies has created an institutionalized imbalance predicated on the absence of basic legal strictures in the technology sector.  Without regulation tech companies have fed a decade-long ascendancy on a margin of profit derived from their near universal exemption from state tax laws.  Their rise has been accompanied by a consolidation of power among former politicians and wealthy individuals with evident connections to each other and each others’ companies.  Their ties have made it impossible for them to act as impartial advocates for the companies they represent. 

Google has made boldest move thus far in an industry that is reaping large financial rewards at the expense of American taxpayers. As tech skirmishes become more public, the legal and legislative branches of American government will be forced to address issues that have been willfully ignored for a generation.  The implications of delayed intervention are potentially devastating for the interaction of states, the rights of citizens, and the role of governance in business.  Non-regulation now directly endangers the words and creations of our artists in ways that were previously inconceivable. A failure to act comprehensively will only result in the continued exploitation of a growing class of impoverished taxpaying citizens who have already borne the largest burden for the least reward from one of the greatest advances in human history.

 

Comments

[ReedYoung]

The purpose of copyrights and patents is to encourage productivity in new ideas and reward the original producer, not to perpetually restrict access to discoveries made long ago to the benefit of any individual descendant nor corporate purchaser of intellectual property (patent troll).

"In early September authors and their representatives ran out of time to invoke ownership of their own writing and opt out ..."

Well, how much time have they already had? If they aren't utilizing their intellectual property rights, isn't the original creator of the work best honored by preserving some copy of his/her work, keeping it in the public domain rather than lost from the store of human knowledge altogether when the binding disintegrates and the pages fall out?

[JIzin]

These books are all open source already anyway! I like the fact that google is willing to put all the "freeware" books into the same electronic e-book. Creating a standard for everyone to follow who want to sell their stuff online.
You can skip the publishing house, write one "best giveaway" novel and then for later books charge the downloaders two or three dollars. The writers make the same amount of money and the only people who lose are the "dinosaur" industries. Much like the scribes lost theirs with the advent of the printing press and typewriters.
Things are changing and letting everyone who has access to a computer have access to classics that are free and open source is a good thing!

[Inquisitr]

Google is offering me free books online that if I want I can move over to my E-book reader for free.

You're going to have to try a whole lot harder to make me think it is a bad idea. The sony / google partnership is great for ebook readers.

[LeftRight]

Except, of course, if you're a publisher, or an author, or if they start charging too much money once they push everyone else out of the market..... Sounds a lot like the old Standard Oil to me.

[deviantdevil]

And the barons of publishing media convoluting copyright law from what it was to what it is now was and is somehow a good thing for the general populous of the world!? The day and age of copyright is long gone. There are not any words that have not been said in pretty much the same way a dozen or so times before. As that is true for literature (most of which most books are not any longer in the classical sense) it is also true for video and music and program coding. Copyright and patents are holdovers from a era gone by. It all needs to be just abolished forever.