European Booksellers Slam Google Book Settlement

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 12/2/2008 12:31:00 PM

• From search giant to giant retailer?
• U.S. deal said not compatible with European copyright
• EBF impact? 

The Belgium-based European Booksellers Federation (EBF) has released a statement slamming the recent Google Book Search settlement with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Authors Guild, telling members the deal gives too much power to Google, and runs afoul of European copyright law. EBF officials also claim the settlement deal contradicts a 2005 statement by Google to European publishers that its revenue model was strictly advertising based.

EBF claimed that Google officials in 2005 said that the “objectivity” did not allow the company “to participate in any affiliate or revenue-share model with any linked retailer,” unlike the deal, Google has now hammered out with U.S. publishers which will give it a third of online sales.

“As such a dominant player in the online world, Google will occupy a unique gateway position that, if abused, will inevitably create a de facto monopoly,” the EBF statement read. “A situation where competition is removed from the market place by such a dominant player cannot, ultimately, be good for the consumer and would be highly damaging for cultural diversity in the European Union, if Google was planning to extend its policy in the U.S. to Europe.”

Europe’s voice
At present, the deal applies only to U.S. publishers—although there have been reports that Google officials have begun to feel out European publishers about a similar agreement. EBF, meanwhile, has staked out the moral high ground. “We urge all those who have influence in these matters to resist any similar agreements being introduced into the European Union,” said the EBF statement, claiming a similar deal in Europe would have a “hugely damaging effect on European cultural diversity and on the book chain,” namely, “authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers."

In perhaps its harshest language, EBF suggested the settlement agreement was “a Trojan horse on which Google advances to take over the worldwide dissemination of knowledge and culture,” and that the deal represented “an expropriation of authors through the backdoor.”

Google should not be seeking to “to acquire the inalienable rights of authors through a golden hand shake,” the EBF continued, claiming that if the deal is approved, Google grows from a search giant to a dominant online retailer, and just as other online services are getting underway. Last week, a European digital library project, envisioned to be a wedge against Google’s potential cultural dominance, launched—and, immediately crashed due to overflowing traffic.

Copyright?
The EBF also suggested that the current settlement conflicts with European copyright law, a position also voiced by the Federation of European Publishers. “According to European copyright law, the authorization of rightholders always has to be obtained previous to publication, digitization or use,” Fran Dubruille, an EBF spokesperson told the LJ Academic Newswire, adding that there is “not such a thing as fair use” in Europe. Under Google’s U.S. settlement, authors who do not legally opt-out of the deal are included. “This procedure, we believe, is likely to run contrary to the key provisions within European copyright law,” EBF officials stated.

Curiously, that provision also seems to run counter to U.S. copyright law. One of the AAP’s key arguments in its initial lawsuit against Google was that the opt-out offered by Google knocked "copyright on its ear," Patricia Schroeder, AAP president and chief executive officer, told reporters, by shifting the onus of preventing infringement to the copyright owner from the would-be user.

For all its concern, the EBF has little weight to throw around as the settlement progresses. Dubruille said the organization would not file official comments with the U.S. Court opposing the deal, and ultimately, conceded that individual publishers and copyright owners will decide whether a Google settlement similar to the one in the United States emerges in Europe.

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