Amazon Fights to Kill Google Books in U.S. Federal Court

From DailyTech: Google's ambition was simple -- offer a first-of-its-kind internet library, where people could travel online to view everything from textbooks to great works of fiction. It began scanning books and quickly met with the ire of the publishing industry. However, it brokered a multi-million dollar settlement with publishers that would include compensation for rights holders and means for visitors to buy the books they were viewing, with Google retaining a cut.

The deal wasn't popular with Google's competitors -- Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo. These competitors recently shacked up with the Open Books Alliance, a group that was opposed to basically all things Google Books related. The group is taking its complaints to federal court, challenging the legality of the settlement.

Yesterday, Amazon filed a particularly stinging criticism at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Writes Amazon, "Amazon also brings a unique perspective to this court because it has engaged in a book scanning project very similar to Google's, with one major distinction: As to books still subject to copyright protection, Amazon has only scanned those for which it could obtain permission to do so from the copyright holder."

"[The Google Books deal] is unfair to authors, publishers, and others whose works would be the subject of a compulsory license for the life of the copyright in favor of Google and the newly created Book Rights Registry. [It] represents an unprecedented rewriting of copyright law through judicial action."

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