ALA Annual Conference Event: The Google Book Search Settlement–Continuing to explore what’s in it for libraries
The ALA Washington Office is hosting a Breakout Session to discuss the proposed Google Book Search settlement on Saturday, July 11 from 10:30am – noon at McCormick Place West (MCP), Room W-193b (listed as the Washington Office Breakout Session II – Fair Use in the 21st Century: From Lawsuits to Legislation).
Representatives from Google and the library community will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Nancy Kranich, chair of the Committee on Legislation’s Copyright Subcommittee, to discuss the recent settlement and essentially what’s in it for libraries.
Panel participants include:
- Dan Clancy, Google
- Crosby Kemper III, CEO, Kansas City Public Library system
- Nancy Kranich, Chair, ALA Committee on Legislation Copyright Subcommittee
- Lee Van Orsdel, Dean of University Libraries, Grand Valley State University
- Kevin Smith, Scholarly Communications Officer, Duke University
- Patricia Steele, Dean of University Libraries, Indiana University
The program will include an overview of the proposed settlement recently reached among Google, the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild and the comments filed on behalf of the ALA, the Association of Academic and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for the judge to consider in his ruling on the proposed settlement. The panelists will offer brief remarks and then take questions from the audience.
Additional information about the proposed Google Book Search settlement agreement, including the recent amended agreement between Google and the University of Michigan, is available at http://wo.ala.org/gbs/.
Monopoly in the Making. If this settlement goes through, Google would have usurped all of our libraries with absolutely no competition from any other vendor. “In the absence of competition for the services it will enable, the settlement could compromise fundamental library values such as equity of access to information, patron privacy, and intellectual freedom.” (See letter from American Library Association, 7.29.09, within – which is pro settlement. why?).
If the settlement goes through, Google will control all digital rights to all written literary works. ALL written works. It’s a bogus elite settlement that does not take into account writers (mostly children) who are unpublished – further, Google has no other competition. ugh!
[If one considers how much it costs to access Lexis or Westlaw. Or to download an article from WSJ or American Scientific. the potential revenue to Google is staggering.]
Also this letter from the Library Association assumes the DOJ is a regulator and is going to monitor Google’s ties. There is no excuse for arranging this kind of settlement. It’s wrong.
I whole heartedly disagree with this settlement.
Thank you for listening.