The war for the Google Books project moves into the EU - Berlin opposes the deal with the software giant - The Commission discussed the matter on Monday
A. Setting / D. Alandete - Madrid / Washington - 04/09/2009
The battle for the future marketing of the rights of digitized books also being waged in Europe. The agreement millionaire for the scanning of books signed in 2008 between editors and authors of the United States and Google has sparked a fierce debate now on this side of the Atlantic
The battle for the future of marketing rights also digitized books being waged in Europe. The agreement millionaire for the scanning of books signed in 2008 between editors and authors of the United States and Google has sparked a fierce debate now on this side of the Atlantic. That deal must still be approved (October 7) in New York federal Judge Denny Chin.
For some, the draft Google Books will be a de facto monopoly of the browser on the electronic exploitation of millions of works. For others, a precious opportunity to disseminate knowledge across the globe.
The European Commission in Brussels on Monday convened a meeting to discuss in detail the impact of this intricate legal mechanism that involves the creation of a universal register of deeds. Through this mechanism to regulate the distribution worldwide of money generated by future sales online. Much of that money would end up in the hands of the software giant, and how much the authors and publishers. At the moment the mechanism is limited to the United States. The deadline for authors and publishers exclude themselves of that pact expires today.
In Europe, Germany is a leading voice among the critics. Berlin believes that the covenant is contrary to its laws and government initiatives to create global digital libraries, non-commercial, as is the case of Europeana, the European digitization project. "We hope the court rejects the agreement or at least remove the same authors and German publishers, said Tuesday the Germanic Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries. Berlin has sent a letter to New York judge who is investigating the case. The German government's reaction corresponds to the suspicion that the agreement has raised among the intellectuals of that country, which last April signed the call Heidelberg Manifesto.
The German government has been the only one so far in opposing the agreement. While in France, the National Library, locomotive to the date of Europeana, the respectable surprised a few days ago announcing its intention to cooperate with Google. The French Government has given a deadline of two months to decide whether to give his placet to cooperation.
About thirty major libraries worldwide, including several English, and digitize their funds within the Google program. The latest to express interest in joining the project has been the Library of Florence (Italy). It will be a senior member of the Italian Culture Ministry who should say if you start scanning, the software giant's hand, than 300,000 works ranging from 400 to 1870.
Within the EU, the Google project has the sympathy of the Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding. "I understand the fears of many European publishers and libraries about the power of Google in the market, but also share the frustration of many Internet companies that would like to offer interesting business models in this field and can not by fragmentation of the European legal system" said Reding at a conference in July.
In Spain the government ... Do not know answers. Nor has there been mobilization similar to that of German intellectuals. "I do not know if lack of interest. Perhaps there are countries where they are more organized," said Magdalena Vintent telephone, president of the International Federation of Organizations of Copyright Management, who also heads CEDRO, the English branch of that organization. Vintent, who will come to Brussels, stressed that these agencies are informing their partners (authors and publishers) the contents of the agreement. They are also trying to ensure that those who want to unsubscribe or make further financial claims can.
The head of the search engine Google Book España y Portugal, Luis Collado, insiste en que el pacto de Estados Unidos no supone exclusividad. "Cualquier otro particular puede firmar un acuerdo similar", señala. Collado subraya que es necesario separar lo que está ocurriendo en EE UU del proyecto general de Google para la digitalización de libros. "Son dos cosas distintas. La cuestión, en Europa, es qué hacer con todos esos libros que están fuera del ámbito comercial". No obstante, Google nunca ha negado su intención de extender a Europa el modelo estadounidense, si se dan las condiciones.
El tira y afloja iniciado hace tiempo en EE UU (el gigante informático comenzó su gigantesca empresa hace cinco años) se ha convertido, más However, in an "all against Google." The latest company to join the chorus of critics of the deal is Amazon. This immense online store has launched this week in court a petition to Judge Denny Chin, who is investigating the case, stop the deal because it considers "high-tech version of those pacts loft that feed the nightmares monopoly. "
Amazon, along with the other two major rivals Google in the online search market, Yahoo and Microsoft, a member of the Open Book Alliance, a group created last month to channel opposition to Google Book Search. In this initiative have been joining all kinds of organizations, from the Association New York Library to the main group of science fiction writers, they belong to some 1,500 authors.
Today is the deadline for filing claims in the case is considering Judge Chin, who must decide whether to give final approval to the agreement. Google is committed to pay 90 million euros to publishers in exchange for the right to scan books. Under the proposal, the company would offer free books scanned in libraries and charge for full access to these volumes in the network, paying a large percentage of their profits to the authors. In addition, the agreement is not exclusive, so other companies could agree similar.
Writers Association came out yesterday in support of Google. In an open letter criticized the "breathtaking hypocrisy" of Amazon, a company that gives you almost total control and tight market of online books. "Amazon does not need to worry about, really: this deal is on the books that are out of print. The control of online distribution of books in print, unfortunately, seems assured."
Figures 'online'
- 20% of the funds that Google offers online is subject to copyright. The company has seven million books scanned.
- Google Books and has works in over 100 languages.
- More than 600 publishers have authorized CEDRO English, English bank management of reproduction rights, to negotiate on their behalf with Google. Make up 80% of the market.
- In Spain, in 2007, the latest year with data, some 200 publishers of nearly 900 associated with the federation (FGRE) published works in formats other than paper. Is 10.5% of annual turnover. In law, the digital format than 55% of turnover.
Source: www.elpais.com
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