'Smoking gun' emails in Viacom-YouTube case
Is this a smoking gun in the Viacom-YouTube suit? News.
Is this a smoking gun in the Viacom-YouTube suit? News.
A massive development in Google Books: the parties have asked the court to vacate the upcoming hearing date so they can redraft their settlement to satisfy antitrust concerns.
The Internet Archive's Brewster Kahle argues that a revised settlement that preserves Google's control over orphan works is no improvement at all.
The Justice Department has issued a scathing critique of the Google Books settlement, and Google and the publishers and authors are desperately trying to save this deal.
The House Judiciary Committee hears testimony from Google, Amazon, the Copyright Office and academics.
In its objection, Microsoft paints Google Book deal as a joint venture designed to stifle competition, not a settlement between opposing parties.
In its stinging rebuke (PDF) of the Google Books settlement, Amazon lays out the full, horrendous ramifications of the deal: it rewrites copyright law, creates a monopoly in perpetutity, short circuits debate on the issue and takes the matter out of Congress' hands.Here's the major points of the argument, taken from the introduction to Amazon's 49-page brief.
The Justice Department is "in contact" with Google and its critics over a proposed settlement that essentially gives Google monopoly control over thousands of books that may belong in the public domain.The Wall Street Journal reported today that antitrust investigators at Justice have been talking with Google about the possibility that the deal is anticompetitive.
Is the Justice Department actually investigating the Google Books deal? Yes, the department confirmed to the federal judge reviewing the class action settlement.
With Justice Department scrutiny over the Google Books Settlement only the the leading edge of antitrust regulators' attention to Google, the company has launched a dog-and-pony show dedicated to combating the impression that more control is needed.In a presentation (PDF) acquired by Consumer Watchdog, Google public affairs lead Adam Kovacevich argued that Google is anything but anticompetitive.