A lawsuit that began in 2005 and was seemingly settled last year is still making waves, particularly in Europe. On Monday, the European Union is holding a hearing to discuss the effects of the Google book settlement on Europe-and the Coordination of European Picture Agencies is weighing in on behalf of the image industry.
In 2005, authors and publishers sued Google, claiming that the search company was infringing copyrights by digitizing books. Google settled, though it initially claimed fair use. Many viewed the concession as a shrewd business move, because it solidified Google's position as the leading search engine and put a price tag on digitizing publication content for search purposes, effectively precluding smaller companies from following it Google's footsteps.
This is objectionable to a coalition of several large companies, as well as a number of European countries. Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo! argue that Google is trying to control access to and distribution of the world's largest database of books. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the settlement agreement for possible antitrust violations. The Government of Germany just filed papers in U.S. courts, alleging that the settlement agreement violates German laws and irrevocably alters the international intellectual property landscape.
Interested parties, including CEPIC, will attend this Monday's hearing to comment on the settlement. CEPIC says its membership is directly affected by the settlement, because millions of digitized books include photographs. CEPIC wants the settlement agreement to be revoked and replaced by negotiations regarding appropriate image uses. The organization insists on being able to work with publishers to solve related issues of photographic rights.
Additional information will be available on Monday.