October 7 is shaping up to be a big day for bookworms. On that day, a federal judge is expected to rule on a proposed agreement between Google and book publishers and authors that has been called the “most significant book industry development in the modern era” by Berkeley Professor Pamela Samuelson. If the settlement is approved, Google will gain the rights to scan and index tens of millions of currently books to which it currently lacks access, and upload them to its Google Books site. In exchange, Google will make a lump sum payment to authors and share its future book search revenues with them.
But not everyone is happy about the settlement. Several academics, trade groups, and activists have criticized the deal’s scope, and the Department of Justice is investigating the deal’s effects on competition. But user privacy has been perhaps the biggest sticking point of the agreement.
