Authors protest ’sweeping’ Google book deal
p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem and Bruce Schneier are among two dozen authors and publishers who want a US federal judge to throw out the proposed settlement in a lawsuit over Google Book Search.
The three argue the, “sweeping agreement to digitize millions of books ignores critical privacy rights for readers and writers,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
The group represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Samuelson clinic), filed an objection to the settlement today.
They’re concern is giant online advertising company Google’s collection of personal identifying information about users who browse, read, and make purchases online at Google Book Search, “will chill their readership”.
The settlement, currently pending approval from a New York federal district court, would end the legal challenges brought by the Authors’ Guild over the Google Book Search project, says the EFF, going on:
“It would give Google the green light to scan and digitize millions of books and allow users to search for and read those books online. However, Google’s system could monitor what books users search for, how much of the books they read, and how long they spend on various pages. Google could then combine information about readers’ habits and interests with additional information it collects from other Google services, creating a massive “digital dossier” that would be vulnerable to fishing expeditions by law enforcement or civil litigants.”
The group asks the court to require Google to, “create a robust privacy policy that gives readers as much privacy in online books as they have in a library or a bookstore and to ensure that the policy is enforceable and overseen by the court on an ongoing basis,” says the EFF, adding:
“The authors and publishers present a list of privacy protections that would improve the settlement, including limiting tracking of users by requiring a court order or judge-approved warrant before disclosure of the information collected, ensuring user control of personal information stored by Google, and making the system transparent to readers.
“After much pressure from EFF, ACLU, the Samuelson clinic, and others, Google finally issued a privacy policy for Google Books on September 3, 2009. However, that policy doesn’t guarantee that Google will require court approval before disclosing reader information, and it doesn’t sufficiently limit Google’s retention of that information. It is also changeable by Google at any time.”
A hearing on the fairness of the proposed Google Book Search settlement is set for October 7 in New York.
Stay tuned.
Google Book Search – Google: digitizer of Canada’s heritage?, September 8, 2009
EFF – National Coalition of Authors Urge Rejection of Google Book Search Deal, September 8, 2009
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