Open Book Alliance Members and Others Urge House Judiciary Committee to Carefully...

Open Book Alliance Members and Others Urge House Judiciary Committee to
Carefully Scrutinize Google Book Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Members of the Open Book
Alliance and several other organizations today joined together in submitting a
letter to the House Judiciary Committee, urging it to carefully review and
scrutinize the proposed Google Book Settlement and its implications for
authors, copyright holders, schools, libraries and the public.

The letter, which was organized by the Open Book Alliance, was delivered to
House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Conyers and Committee member Rep.
Lamar Smith in advance of that committee's hearing on Thursday, September 10
concerning the proposed settlement.

The letter was signed by more than 20 organizations, including all 11 members
of the Open Book Alliance, showing the breadth and depth of opposition to the
proposed settlement. Among the signatories are several library organizations,
including the New York Library Association, Illinois Library Association, New
York Alliance of Library Systems, Ohio Library Council, and Special Libraries
Association.

The full text of the letter, including the signatories, can be found below, or
at
http://www.openbookalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/DC-Sign-On-Letter-0909-kp2.pdf.

The Open Book Alliance is a coalition of librarians, legal scholars, authors,
publishers, and technology companies created to counter the proposed Google
Book Settlement in its current form. The Open Book Alliance can be found
online at http://www.openbookalliance.org, and on Twitter @OBAlliance.

Text of Letter to House Judiciary Committee:

The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Committee on the Judiciary
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Lamar Smith
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Conyers and Rep. Smith:

We understand that, on September 10, the House Judiciary Committee, under your
leadership, will hold a hearing on the proposed settlement of a copyright
infringement class action lawsuit brought against Google. 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 undersigned organizations and companies - representing authors, libraries,
non-profits and corporate interests -- believe the proposed settlement
threatens to monopolize the access to and distribution and pricing of the
largest, private digital database of books in the world. It would do so by
using the class action mechanism to not only redress past harm, but to
prospectively shape the future of digital book distribution, display and
search.

Each of our organizations and companies strongly supports the effort to expand
the availability of knowledge through promoting access to digitized books. But
we do not believe this proposed settlement represents a fair, appropriate or
desirable way to achieve that end. The proposed settlement, undertaken to
redress a single legal claim, threatens to raise prices and restrict the
public's access to digital books, disproportionately impact small libraries
and academic institutions, including those serving rural, economically
disadvantaged and minority communities, and threaten the rights of authors and
small publishers.

-- The proposed settlement harms consumers by thwarting competition and
ignoring privacy concerns. It creates a digital book monopoly that
will
inevitably lead to fewer choices and higher prices for consumers of
digital books. The settlement would allow a group of competing
publishers and rights owners to collectively set prices and would
leave
Google as the only company with a the right to copy, display or sell
digital versions of millions of so-called "orphan" works
(books for which authors or rights holders cannot be identified or
located). The settlement does nothing to ensure that Google does not
use
information about what books people are reading to make unfair profit
or
that it does not inappropriately share this knowledge with commercial
interests or governments. Finally, the settlement is carefully
structured to ensure that all of the covered digital content will be
uniquely available to Google's search engine, for refinement of
their search algorithm as well as actual displayed results.
-- The settlement is bad for libraries and schools. While a handful of
large and well-funded university libraries participated in the Google
book-scanning effort, many other educational institutions and
libraries
will be forced to pay monopoly prices for access to the millions of
books in the private Google database, straining already-stretched
budgets and perpetuating a system of haves and have-nots in our
nation's education system.
-- The settlement is bad for authors and small publishers. Unless they
act
to opt out by the deadline, authors and other writers lose both rights
and remedies enacted by Congress related to the fruits of their
labor--a
future in which they have no negotiating rights for the value of their
work.

-- The settlement sets public policy through class action litigation. The
proposed settlement far exceeds the bounds of a typical class action
settlement by prospectively creating a digital book monopoly and
effectively privatizing important copyright and other public policy
decisions.

As the Committee's past consideration of orphan works legislation and
statutory mechanisms for encouraging the availability of works has
demonstrated, there are fair ways, grounded in sound public policy, to ensure
the protection of copyright, promote competition, and advance knowledge. We
urge you, through careful review of the proposed settlement and its
implications for all authors and rights holders, for the public, for schools
and libraries, and for innovators, to begin the process toward shaping a more
sound and equitable outcome.

Sincerely,

Amazon.com
American Consumer Institute
American Independent Writers
American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP)
American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA)
Bear Star Press
Council of Literary and Magazine Presses
Illinois Library Association
Internet Archive
McPherson & Company, Publishers
Microsoft Corporation
National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981
New York Alliance of Library Systems
New York Library Association
Ohio Library Council
Open Book Alliance
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Silverfish Review Press
Small Press Distribution
Special Libraries Association
Starcherone Books
Yahoo!

SOURCE Open Book Alliance

Open Book Alliance, openbookalliancepress@yahoo.com