Antitrust Updates: Google Book Search; Section 2 Symposium; The Mediated Book

Three quick items of interest:

1. The judge extended the deadlines in the Google Book Search settlement by roughly four months yesterday. That means that the new opt-out deadline is September 4, 2009 and the Fairness Hearing is scheduled for October 7, 2009. Also yesterday, there are a number of reports (NYT) that the Antitrust Division at DOJ is now taking a serious look at the settlement. This is hardly surprising, since the most obvious parallels to the settlement are ASCAP and BMI and we have engaged in nearly 70 years of antitrust “regulation” of them. You can read my paper on the antitrust issues in GBS here (and I have a short version this week on the Washington Legal Foundation’s website). Fred von Lohmann at the Electronic Frontier Foundation has a nice update post on GBS. (And if you want more on ASCAP and BMI, you might try this.) Google itself explains the benefits of the deal today on its Public Policy Blog.

2. The folks at Truth on the Market are planning an online symposium starting on May 4^th on Section 2 of the Sherman Act and the DOJ’s recent report on Section 2.

3. Finally, I will be attending a symposium next week at George Mason on Online Markets v. Traditional Markets. I will be discussing “The Mediated Book.”

Comments

[Michael W. Perry]

I'm one of the seven authors and their representatives who asked the court for this four-month extension of the opt-in date. You can find our April 24 letter, which was brilliantly prepared by the law firm of DeVore & Demarco, and the judge's April 28 order for a four-month extension at this website:

http://www.InklingBooks.com/

This extension should allow more time for the settlement to be debated. In particular, it will provide an opportunity for European governments to express their growing reservations, given our treaty obligations to protect the copyrights of their citizens. It is difficult to imagine how a settlement reached between three private parties representing only themselves could set aside those commitments.

Opposition in Germany seems particularly strong, with over 1300 German writers having signed a Heidelberg Appeal asking their government to take action against it. Today, someone in German forwarded me two letters from high federal officials who are responding to that Appeal. You can find information about German opposition in a recent Spiegel article.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,621385,00.html

One month ago, this settlement seemed to be a done deal. Now things are much more uncertain.

--Michael W. Perry, Seattle