Melville House Books

Late last Thursday a long list of critics of the Google Book Search Settlement asked the judge in the case to set aside plans for a final hearing about an amended agreement, saying that the deal was far too complex to be resolved by the judges November 9 deadline. As a Reuters wire story reports, opponents to the deal, including Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft, the National Writers Union, Consumer Watchdog and singer Arlo Guthrie, were among those signing a letter saying, “We are united … in our concern that the parties’ (Google and the authors) requests to limit the notice, time and scope of objections will be unfair to us and to other class members.”

That’s not Google’s only worrisome lawsuit at the moment. As the Reuters story also notes, “The French publishing house La Martiniere, the French Publishers’ Association and authors’ group SGDL asked a Paris court to fine Google 15 million euros ($22 million) and 100,000 euros for each day it continues to violate copyright by digitizing their books.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.