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Alexandra Owens, ASJA executive director 212-997-0957
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Russell Wild, former president and board member, 610-530-0078

New York, Sept. 21, 2009

Justice Department's Google settlement comments pull no punches

ASJA applauds call for "opt-in" rather than current "opt-out"

ASJA thanks the Department of Justice for intervening in the Google settlement, and for the temperate manner in which it stated objections in this hotly contested matter. Judge Denny Chin already has before him responses from individuals, corporations, attorneys, a wide variety of advocacy and civic groups and even foreign governments.

While the Justice Department brief is measured in tone, it also pulls no punches. It mentions some 28 ways the settlement plan currently runs counter to the law or skirts illegality so closely that the Department is seriously concerned. Click here to see the Justice filing in full. Among the DOJ issues:

  • The settlement is not a legal use of class action.
  • There is no need for the proposed new registry, which likely would constrain competition.
  • "The registry is effectively controlled by large commercial publishers."
  • The "opt out" provision is upends copyright law. The Justice Department encouraged switching to an "opt in."

Justice attorneys also scoffed at the idea that Google could possibly have any competition, given the advantages granted in the proposed settlement.

ASJA applauds Justice Department attorneys for offering to work with the plaintiffs and the defendant to right the ways the current settlement plan runs afoul of laws governing anti-trust, copyright and class action suits. We hope for an outcome that will serve the public good without forgetting this settlement is the outgrowth of Google's disdain for the law and the rights of many, many individual writers.

ASJA urges the parties to take the advice of the Justice Department to heart, and make the settlement an "opt in," rather than an "opt out" for writers. ASJA also hopes Judge Chin will channel infringement payments to writers by enlarging the scope of the Authors Registry, which both the Authors Guild and ASJA helped found in 1995, rather than setting up a large, new bureaucracy the Justice Department says is unnecessary.

ASJA believes orphan book rights should not be Google's prize for massive copyright infringement and business cunning. Lately we see that Google sought the rights to orphan books not to open them up to the world, as it maintains, or to help the visually impaired. It is starting a new print-on-demand business. The more book copyrights it owns, the greater Google's business advantage.

ASJA also hopes the court will mandate safeguards to protect reader privacy and also, some manner of public oversight.


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