“Until now, discussions on the Google Book Settlement have been taking place across fragmented forums,” SharedBook chief executive Caroline Vanderlip wrote in a message online at gbs.sharedbook.com.<\/p>\n
“Now, for the first time, policymakers, businesspeople, scholars, journalists and others have the opportunity to come together and engage in a granular, contextual dialogue on this important topic.”<\/p>\n
The online forum is intended as a focal point for discussion about the settlement in advance of an October 7 “fairness hearing” to be held in a US federal court which is to decide whether the deal is acceptable.<\/p>\n
Google’s settlement with US authors and publishers over its book scanning project still needs the green light from a US judge but it may first have to pass muster with the US Justice Department.<\/p>\n
US antitrust regulators have reportedly taken an interest in thecontroversial settlement which would allow California-based Google to create the world’s largest digital library and online bookstore.<\/p>\n
The justice department is said to be examining antitrust implications of last year’s settlement between Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers (AAP).<\/p>\n
Alleging copyright infringement, the Authors Guild and AAP filed a class action lawsuit against the Internet search and advertising giant in 2005 over its scanning of millions of books through its Google Book Search service.<\/p>\n
In the settlement, Google agreed to establish an independent “Book Rights Registry” which will provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest concerns of opponents of the settlement, however, are the millions of so-called “orphan” books, out-of-print works whose copyright holder cannot be found.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the settlement have argued that it gives Google an exclusive license to scan, sell and profit from “orphan” books.<\/p>\n
Among the groups making this argument is the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based non-profit which has its own digital scanning project.<\/p>\n
US District Court Judge Denny Chin has set a September 4 deadline for authors and their heirs or publishers to decide whether they want to be included in the settlement.<\/p>\n
“Our platform supports comments and responsive statements in real-time, linking them directly to the Google Book Settlement and accompanying documents through online footnoting,” Vanderlip wrote.<\/p>\n
“As a result, the Google Book Settlement site becomes an informed and transparent analysis of key points of the settlement by its most concerned stakeholders, available to anyone on the Web.”<\/p>\n
The website also allows visitors to compile content into book format and print it for a fee of $20.<\/p>\n