Arguments on Google Book System
Google effort to create the world’s largest digital library on the Internet told a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday, Marc Mauer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said the audio capabilities of Google’s system “will give us access to 10 million books.”
Google’s proposed settlement offers “woefully inadequate compensation” for “unknown and undisclosed uses,” said the lawyer, Andrew Devore.
Judge Denny chin of Federal District Court in Manhattan has already read more than 500 submissions about Google’s $125 million settlement that was meant to end two 2005 lawsuits trying to stop the company from scanning books into an online database.
In court papers submitted last week, Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., defended its deal with authors by saying its digital library lives up to the purpose of copyright law, which is to create and distribute expressive works. France and Germany, which oppose the settlement, noted they support a European book-scanning project, Europeans, because it is in compliance with their laws and requires permission from copyright holders before books are scanned.
Obtaining permission beforehand is what Amazon.com said it did when it engaged in a similar book-scanning project. Amazon’s lawyers oppose the Google settlement, along with Microsoft and Yahoo.
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