OpEd: Pioneers such as Google need to be policed; Observer, 8/30/09

OpEd: Observer; Pioneers such as Google need to be policed:

"THERE HAS BEEN frenzied speculation in recent weeks that Apple is about to launch a revolutionary, hand-held device called the Tablet. Meanwhile, Google is mired in a protracted legal dispute over its right to create an online archive of the world's library books, including millions still in copyright. At first glance, these two pieces of news don't have much in common, but both are part of a battle being waged by the world's big-tech companies for dominance of the digital future.

One way to get a handle on the digital world is to think of it as a new, uncharted landmass, one that has become navigable thanks to the internet. Beyond this new frontier – a kind of 21st-century wild west – lies a terrain where scarcely unimaginable wealth is waiting to be unlocked. Only this time the key battle isn't over a physical resource but over a non-physical one: information. Information is the real estate of the digital age and it is this that the likes of Google, Microsoft and Apple are in the business of exploiting, whether by providing it free, by owning it or by controlling the channels through which it can be sold and delivered.

The opening up of this frontier raises big questions. What do we want the digital realm to look like? Do we want it to be controlled by a few large companies or should it be more pluralistic and democratic? The distrust that many of us feel toward a company such as Google (even while we enthusiastically use its products) stems from a fear that it may be seizing control of this territory before most of us even quite appreciated what was there.

We are both right and wrong to be worried. Right, because it is true that there is a potential for monopolies to be created, and because crucial legal rights, in particular, intellectual property, are in danger of being trampled on as we highlight elsewhere in the paper.

But at the same time, it is important to remember that we have reasons to be grateful for the existence of big, innovative corporations. Just as in the 19th century it was only the railway companies that had the muscle to "open up" the American west, so it is the Googles and Apples of our day that have the vision and wealth to unlock the resources of the digital realm. Apple can create wonders like the Apple Tablet because it has the money to hire the world's best inventors; and Google can scan most of the world's library books because it has the vision and chutzpah to undertake such a venture.

However, it is imperative that such companies are subjected to rigorous scrutiny and proper regulatory vigilance so that dangerous acquisitions of power don't take place."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/30/apple-google-microsoft-tablet-books

Chinese Court Jails and Fines Pirates of Windows Software; New York Times, 8/22/09

Associated Press via New York Times; Chinese Court Jails and Fines Pirates of Windows Software:

"A court in eastern China has sentenced four people to prison and ordered payment of about 11 million renminbi ($1.6 million) in fines for distributing pirated versions of Microsoft’s Windows XP and other software.

The Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group, lauded the court’s decision as the first successful prosecution of large-scale, online software piracy in China. Microsoft likewise applauded the handling of the case.

“It shows the government is really taking action,” Liu Fengming, vice president for the greater China region for Microsoft, said in a statement."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/technology/22piracy.html?scp=2&sq=piracy&st=cse

Microsoft, Yahoo Unite Against Google Book Search; InformationWeek, 8/21/09

Thomas Claburn via InformationWeek; Microsoft, Yahoo Unite Against Google Book Search:

A new coalition opposed to Google's Book Search settlement has been formed.

"The major areas of contention revolve around issues of privacy, exclusivity, and indemnification from liability. Critics of the settlement want Google to commit to: offering online readers the same privacy protection enjoyed by offline readers; an open registry system rather than one controlled by two publishing industry groups; and indemnification from copyright claims for those who want to scan orphaned works -- books for which the copyright holder cannot be found -- as Google has done.

In May, Google said that it planned "to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device," showing that Google Book Search will become a platform for Google book sales. This presumably explains Amazon's reported decision to join the coalition opposing the settlement.

To Google, Microsoft's public opposition seems incongruous because the company shuttered its Live Book Search project last year "to focus on search verticals with high commercial intent, such as travel...

Google insiders have acknowledged being surprised by the breadth of the opposition to the Book Search settlement and the company has recently been more energetic about making its views known."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219401064

Tech's Heavyweights Put Google's Books Deal In Crosshairs; Wall Street Journal, 8/21/09

Jessica E. Vascallero and Geoffrey A. Folwer via Wall Street Journal; Tech's Heavyweights Put Google's Books Deal In Crosshairs:

"Three technology heavyweights and some library associations are joining a coalition led by a prominent Silicon Valley lawyer to challenge Google Inc.'s settlement with authors and publishers.

Peter Brantley, a director at coalition co-founder Internet Archive said the group, whose members will be formally disclosed in the next couple of weeks, is being co-led by Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley lawyer involved in the Department of Justice's antitrust investigation against Microsoft Corp. last decade. Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have agreed to join the group. Mr. Reback did not reply to requests for comment.

Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed their participation. Amazon declined to comment.

The coalition is the latest sign that Google's rapid ascent has made it a prime target for competitors, just as Microsoft was reviled as the industry's bully in the 1990s.

Google defended the settlement, struck last October with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. "The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition," a Google spokesman said in a statement...

Since last year, a broad group of authors, librarians, European publishers and privacy advocates have argued that the settlement gives Google an unfair copyright immunity in offering future services around digital books that would be tough for other businesses to match."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125080725309147713.html

Google Rivals Will Oppose Book Settlement; New York Times, 8/21/09

Miguel Helft via New York Times; Google Rivals Will Oppose Book Settlement:

"Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo are planning to join a coalition of nonprofit groups, individuals and library associations to oppose a proposed class-action settlement giving Google the rights to commercialize digital copies of millions of books...

Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer in Silicon Valley, who is acting as counsel to the coalition, said that Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo had all agreed to join the group, which is tentatively called the Open Book Alliance. The group, led by Mr. Reback and the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has been critical of the settlement, plans to make a case to the Justice Department that the arrangement is anticompetitive. Members of the alliance will most likely file objections with the court independently.

“This deal has enormous, far-reaching anticompetitive consequences that people are just beginning to wake up to,” said Mr. Reback, a lawyer with Carr & Ferrell, a firm in Palo Alto, Calif. In the 1990s, Mr. Reback helped persuade the Justice Department to file its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.

Some library associations and groups representing authors are also planning to join the coalition, he said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/technology/internet/21google.html?scp=2&sq=google%20book%20search&st=cse

Probe of Google Book Deal Heats Up; Wall Street Journal, 6/10/09

Elizabeth Williamson, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, and Jessica E. Vascellero via Wall Street Journal; Probe of Google Book Deal Heats Up:

A New York publishing executive said the Justice Department is requesting documents about pricing, digital strategy and conversations with other publishers related to the Google settlement...

The Justice Department's escalation of its book search inquiry is the latest in a series of antitrust probes of Google's business launched by the department and the Federal Trade Commission, the government's two main antitrust regulators. Taken together, the inquiries represent a broad government examination of the dominant technology company of the decade.

People close to Google say the company considers the investigations part of a broader push by new antitrust regulators to step up scrutiny of the technology industry after a lull during the Bush administration.

In response, Google appears to be stepping up efforts to press its case with lawmakers and regulators. The company's chief legal officer, David Drummond, travels to Washington Wednesday to defend the book search deal in meetings with lawmakers and copyright advocates.

Google's effort to avoid anti-trust trouble could hinge on its willingness to strike concessions or scale back certain aspects of its plans to satisfy regulators' concerns. At the same time, Google is working to counter efforts by rivals -- including Microsoft Corp. -- to portray it as a threat to competition or consumer privacy."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124458396782799555.html

Law School To Intervene In Google Book Settlement, Online Media Daily, 4/3/09

Via Online Media Daily: Law School To Intervene In Google Book Settlement:

"A federal judge will allow New York Law School to argue that a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit about Google Book Search should be delayed pending further review.

The school's Institute for Information Law & Policy intends to argue that federal antitrust authorities should weigh in on the case before the court decides whether to approve the settlement. U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin ruled Wednesday that the policy center can file a friend-of-the-court brief...

James Grimmelmann, the law school associate professor behind the initiative, said his main concern about the settlement stems from "orphan works" -- material under copyright, but whose owners can't be found.

Google foe Microsoft has agreed to contribute $50,000 to New York Law School to help fund a host of projects related to the book search settlement, including the friend-of-the-court brief, a symposium, and three white papers.

Grimmelmann said Microsoft will have no influence over the project, and his written proposal seeking funding from the software giant also spelled out that the work will be independent. "

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103393

Tough sentences in China over huge piracy ring: Microsoft, Sydney Morning Herald, 1/1/09

Via Sydney Morning Herald: Tough sentences in China over huge piracy ring: Microsoft:

"The sentences were the "stiffest ever meted out for intellectual property rights violations in China," said a report on the verdicts by the popular Chinese Internet portal Sina.com...

Washington filed a case in April 2007 at the World Trade Organisation over widespread copyright piracy in China, a practice that US companies say deprives them of billions of US dollars in sales each year.

In November, China's assistant commerce minister Chong Quan told US industry and government officials at a gathering in Beijing that Washington must take into account its difficulties as a developing country in tackling copyright breaches.

But China also has recently touted tougher anti-piracy laws as evidence of its resolve to crush such violations."

http://news.smh.com.au/world/tough-sentences-in-china-over-huge-piracy-ring-microsoft-20090101-78dk.html

Creative Commons flourishing despite rough economy, Ars Technica, 12/31/08

Via Ars Technica: Creative Commons flourishing despite rough economy:

"Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2001 by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig to encourage copyright reform and provide a legally-sound licensing framework for works that could be freely redistributed. The licenses and file metadata scheme devised by Creative Commons are increasingly popular and have been adopted by a diverse group of artists and writers ranging from the music group Nine Inch Nails to science fiction novelist Charles Stross. In the years since it was founded, Creative Commons has expanded its focus to encompass similar efforts, including a Science Commons project and an open learning initiative.

Lessig stepped down as CEO of the organization earlier this year when he announced plans to shift his focus towards broader political issues. He was replaced by Joi Ito, a Japanese entrepreneur who has close ties with silicon valley startups. "

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081231-creative-commons-flourishing-despite-rough-economy.html