Norman Oder of Library Journal reports:
In a flurry of comments filed with the federal court New York overseeing the proposed Google Book Search settlement, library groups have stepped up their criticism, joined by several industry heavyweights. On the other side, a variety of supporters have emerged, notably smaller academic institutions that believe that the institutional subscription database (ISD) would be a far better deal than having to try to match a major research library. Also, one library supporter suggested that GBS could essentially replace inter-library loan.
While the deadline for comment was supposed to be September 4, it has been extended until September 8.
Read more on Library Journal.
Meanwhile, Michael Liedtke of Associated Press reports that Amazon.com Inc. filed a 41-page brief in the case in an attempt to persuade U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to block the agreement from taking effect.
Also today, The Washington Post reports that:
Google Inc should develop a privacy policy for its plan to digitize millions of books that limits use of consumer data, the Federal Trade Commission said in a letter to the company.
Google’s project to scan libraries full of books has been stalled by a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in 2005 by the Authors Guild and publishers. A New York court will hold a hearing on a plan to settle that lawsuit on October 7.
The settlement has been attacked from a variety of angles, one of them being concerns that the privacy of people accessing books through Google could be compromised.
In a letter to Google dated Thursday and posted on the FTC’s website, the agency urged the search engine giant to develop a new privacy policy for Google books and to focus on “limiting secondary uses of data collected through Google Books, including uses that would be contrary to reasonable consumer expectations.”
Google promptly responded to FTC’s letter. Associated Press reports:
Google has agreed to draw up a separate privacy policy for its digital library in response to a request from the Federal Trade Commission.
The concessions come amid a growing outcry among critics who believe a class-action settlement with U.S. authors and publishers will give Google too much insight about the books that people are reading online
Photo credit: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann