0

By Paul Biba

europe.jpgThe Financial Times has an article about growing European opposition to the Google Book Settlement. It makes perfect sense to me. It’s pretty scary that a judge in the US can affect rightsholders all over the world, many of whom have never even heard about what is going on. I am surprised that the US State Department hasn’t gotten involved.

Google is facing growing opposition in Europe to its landmark US legal settlement with book publishers and authors, raising a fresh challenge to an agreement that could help determine the future structure of the digital books business.

While limited only to book rights in the US, the proposed settlement, which still needs court approval, has aroused consternation among European publishers, who fear they will lose some of their rights to millions of European works held in university libraries in the US, which have been drawn into Google’s ambitious book-scannning effort. …

Opposition to the terms, which are the same as those applying to copyright holders based in the US, has been strongest from publishers in Germany, but has spread to other countries … In a strongly worded objection of its own, a group of Nordic publishing associations recently claimed the US settlement “renders illusory European rights holders’ right to control publishing of their own books”, and that its members had not been given a say in the agreement.

 
0