In this issue: The ongoing saga of the Google book settlement has all the earmarks of a classic: On one hand is its lofty goal of preventing a repetition of the burning of the Library of Alexander and preserving written content; on the other is the issue of unprotected, defenseless orphans. Practically, however, this is […]

Isabel Davies, Holly Strube, Jun 22, 2011 In the first article on this topic, we discussed the position following the first draft settlement agreement in the Google Books dispute, presenting it in a broader European policy context. However, for those who don’t recall the article, the background to this case is as follows. In the […]

Timothy Brennan, Jun 22, 2011 I earlier commented on economic issues in the proposed settlement. Here, I want to focus on economic aspects of the specific concerns Judge Chin raised, including “opt in” vs. “opt out,” and the potential applicability of a fair use defense.  I then look at the scope of his authority especially […]

Randal Picker, Jun 22, 2011 After more than a year of silence, on March 22, 2011, Judge Denny Chin rejected the proposed settlement in the Google book search (“GBS”) case. In the court’s view, the innovative settlement asked more than U.S. class-action rules could deliver and would, in Judge Chin’s words “simply go too far.” […]

Mark Giangrande, Jun 22, 2011 Much of the discussion surrounding the ASA considers the economic power that Google would have if it was approved and the impact on Google’s book selling competitors. However, the point that seems secondary in this analysis, the actual content of the scanned books, is, from a librarian’s perspective, very important. […]

Gina Durham, Debbie Rosenbaum, Jun 22, 2011 In March of this year, the District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected the proposed settlement of legal claims arising from Google’s digitization of books and online display of excerpts in a class action copyright infringement suit brought by the Authors Guild and others against Google. […]

Ian Forrester, Jun 22, 2011 There is no doubt that the grand idea of scanning millions of books and making them available to the world’s readers is spectacular. There is no doubt that public good can flow from it. However, the current settlement conferred a too immense private good, and annoyed too many ordinary people […]

Malcolm Coate, Jun 22, 2011 A recent edition of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle provided a range of perspectives on the applicability of the Upward Pricing Pressure (“UPP”) model to merger analysis. A number of key insights (e.g., the relevance of market definition, the usefulness of an UPP screen, the similarity between UPP and merger simulation, […]