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E-PrinceU.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin ’75 rejected a proposed settlement between Google, The Authors Guild and The Association of American Publishers that would have allowed the leading Internet search engine company to proceed with its Google Books Search ...
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Hooray for Denny! He's absolutely right that the settlement provides Google a real, not virtual, monopoly on printed matter without compensating authors for use of their material. Google means never having to say you're sorry.
"Free access for public libraries" ... right. There would have been one very expensive access station per library and fees for all the non-public-domain books. The settlement, which was only a class action suit (!), would have overturned US Copyright Law and created a huge cash cow for Google, with most authors unaware of their rights ("being informed" by Google of the settlement or their right to opt out meant ads in newspapers, not individual emails to millions of authors). Taking effective control of an industry and violating copyright law in several countries is not the usual purpose of a class action suit. No reason to be sad; now Google, or another corporation, has to come up with a fair deal.