House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on Google Book Settlement

1

By Paul Biba

According to an email I received from the National Writers Union, the Judiciary Committee will be holding hearings on the Settlement on September 10. (When I checked, however, I didn’t see it listed on the Committee’s calendar.) The email enclosed a short letter from the Union and asks people to use it as a form to send their own. The letter says, in part, “We urge you to give careful scrutiny to the important copyright and competition policy issues the proposed settlement raises and to consider legislative or regulatory measures that could address the fundamental unfairness of this attempt to make public policy through litigation.”

The letter goes on to say that the proposed settlement harms consumers by thwarting competition and ignoring privacy concerns, that the settlement is bad for libraries, schools, authors and publishers, and that the settlement sets public policy through class action litigation.

It is signed by Amazon.com, American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), Council of Literary and Magazine Presses, Internet Archive,Microsoft Corporation, National Writers Union, New York Library Association, Open Book Alliance, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), Small Press Distribution, Special Libraries Association, Yahoo!

1

 Print Friendly