Google to share scanned books with rivals

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 11 Sep 2009 at 08:28

Google has offered to share its library of digitised books with rival stores, as it looks to fend off mounting criticism of the scheme.

In a surprise move, the search giant will allow Amazon, Microsoft and other rivals to resell books made available through its digital library, in an attempt to negate charges that the service is anticompetitive.

"We will let any book retailer sell access to those books," the company says in a statement. "Google will host the digital books online, and retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore will be able to sell access to users on any internet-connected device they choose. Retailers can also pursue their own digitisation efforts of out-of-print books in parallel."

Google denied that offering the service to its rival represented a U-turn on its part: "We believe strongly in an open and competitive market for digital books," says David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. "We always had this vision that we were going to be open."

We believe strongly in an open and competitive market for digital books. We always had this vision that we were going to be open

The search giant made the announcement before the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, after it was called to explain the finer details behind its $125 million plan to create a repository of digitised books, where authors and publishers can register works and receive a portion of the revenues earned from ads, subscriptions and sales.

During the hearing, the scheme was lashed by Marybeth Peters, register of copyrights for the US Copyright Office, who claimed the scheme unfairly bound authors and publishers to Google's book store.

"The settlement would alter the landscape of copyright law," she told lawmakers in written testimony. "The settlement would bind authors, publishers, their heirs and successors to these rules, even though Google has not yet scanned and may never scan their works."

Peters further argued that Google was being given free reign to put out-of-print books on Google Books without seeking permission from the copyright holders, which she described as "indisputably an act of copyright infringement."

Amazon and Microsoft claim to be reviewing the offer, and will issue statements shortly.