Amazon files brief against Google Book Settlement

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By Paul Biba

I’m sure we’ll see a lot of press on this today. Here is an excerpt from an article by Bookseller.com on Amazon’s filing. As a lawyer I am really beginning to question whether a class action is appropriate to resolve the issues in this case. It would effect far too many parties and even have international and diplomatic ramifications. If the court does allow a settlement there is no question that there will be an appeal and we may end up making new law, not on copyright, but on the suitability of class actions.

Amazon.com has formerly registered its objection to the Google Settlement with the US court that will preside over the Fairness Hearing next month.

In a 50-page legal document, filed yesterday (1st September), Amazon said the agreement was “unfair” to other rights holders, gave Google “an effective monopoly” over scanned in works, and would create “a cartel of authors and publishers”. It also questioned the legitimacy of the “class action” and warned the court that it was being asked “to exercise powers that it does not have” stating that the agreement “restrains competition in ways that ought not be sanctioned by this court”. …

Amazon said that it recognised the “surface appeal of the proposed settlement”, and “has long supported efforts to pass copyright reform legislation that would make it easier for booksellers and the public to gain access to these books”. But it said the task of reform had in the past been performed by the United States Congress. It stated: “Class actions, though a common vehicle to challenge the infringement made possible by new technologies, have never until this case been used to set out nationwide the rules and regulations by which use of those new technologies would be determined to be lawful or unlawful.” It added: “Class actions can resolve disputes between parties and can clarify the law for others, but they cannot make changes to the rules in a way that applies evenhandedly to the entire universe of copyright holders and potential users of the new technologies.

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