In another potential setback for the vast digital library planned by Google, several groups representing photographers and other visual artists plan to file a federal lawsuit against the company on Wednesday, alleging that its efforts to digitize millions of library books amounts to a large-scale infringement of their copyrights, The New York Times reported.
Google has reached a potential settlement with authors and publishers who sued on similar grounds in 2005, but a federal judge has not yet signed off on it. Possibly prolonging the lengthy proceedings, the U.S. Department of Justice has recently filed court papers saying the settlement still needs work.
The photographers’ groups in the new lawsuit had sought to intervene in the settlement with authors and publishers, but were rejected. The pending settlement agreement largely excludes photographs and other visual works.
3 Responses to Visual Artists Plan to Sue Google Over Digital-Library Project
d_fevens - April 7, 2010 at 9:20 am
Yet another group that seems to disagree with the University of Wisconsin-Madison statement that,“Google has designed the project to comply with copyright laws.”The University also states that, “The Libraries will not violate copyright laws. This includes taking every effort to not violate the rights of content owners to control the distribution and use of works under copyright.” [What the UW-Madison Libraries will not do]When the University of Wisconsin in a de facto commercial partnership with Google Inc. digitized my work I lost control of the distribution and use of my copyrighted work. As my work is listed on-line at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, with my contact information, the University of Wisconsin did not exert much “effort.” Douglas Fevens,Halifax, Nova Scotia,The University of Wisconsin, Google, & Me
wmartin46 - April 7, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Google perhaps should make an effort to remove any contested works from their archive. And, to help make amends, to remove any reference to the authors of these works, and the works themselves, from their main index. That way, the authors can then control their works as they see fit.
d_fevens - April 7, 2010 at 5:37 pm
The Complaint can be found here.