Just Released by the Library Copyright Alliance: Google Book Settlement: "A Guide for the Perplexed Part IV"

The Library Copyright Alliance has just released, “A Guide for the Perplexed Part IV” that provides a look at Judge Chin’s decision last week regarding the Google Book Settlement (GBS).

Direct to the “A Guide for the Perplexed Part IV” (18 pages; PDF)

From an ALA District Dispatch Post:

This guide is the latest in a series prepared by LCA legal counsel Jonathan Band to help inform the library community about this landmark legal dispute.

In the Guide Part IV, Band explains why the Court rejected the proposed class action settlement, which would have allowed Google to engage in a wide variety of activities using scanned books.

As stated in the guide, “The court concluded that the settlement was unfair because a substantial number of class members [i.e., authors and publishers] voiced significant concerns with the settlement.… However, the validity of the objections seemed less important to the court than the fact that many class members raised them.”

As for the impact of the decision on libraries, Band writes that while it is too early to say what the parties will do next, “it appears that both the challenges and the opportunities presented to libraries by the settlement when it was announced in the fall of 2008 are growing narrower and more distant.”

More Reports and Documents Re: Google Book Settlement

ALA, ACRL, and ARL are members of the Library Copyright Alliance.

Note: We will add this document to our collection of articles, reports, and documents about GBS decisionYou can access the collection here.

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Libraries, News, Reports