Congress To Hold Hearing Thursday on Google Book Search Settlement
No library representatives are on witness list
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 09/09/2009
- Reps from Google, Amazon to testify
- Register of Copyrights on witness list
- ALA, OBA submit testimony
On what appears to be short notice, the House Judiciary Committee will hold (and webcast) a hearing on Competition and Commerce in Digital Books Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. The hearing will focus on the Google Book Search Settlement, which will be considered by a federal judge at a hearing on Octrober 7.
While no one from the library field is listed as a witness, the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries have submitted testimony for the hearing, sharing documents already filed with the court and sent to the Department of Justice, expressing concerns about “equal access for all users to the service, monopoly pricing and reader privacy.”
The Open Book Alliance (OBA), which includes industry heavyweights Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo, as well as the New York Library Association, Ohio Library Council, Special Libraries Association and more, also submitted a letter.
It warned, “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.”
Witness list
The witnesses include:
- David C. Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer
- Paul Misener, Amazon’s VP of Global Policy
- Marc Maurer, President, National Federation of the Blind
- John M. Simpson of Consumer Watchdog
- Paul Aiken, Executive Director of the Authors Guild
- Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office
- Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School Professor
- David Balto of the Center for American Progress
