Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo Join Coalition Against Google Book Settlement
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Can the collective weight of Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) help scuttle Google’s book settlement? The three companies are banding together to join an alliance that is urging the Justice Department—which has launched a formal inquiry into the deal—to oppose it under the grounds that it is anti-competitive, the NYT reports. (The WSJ has more here).
SEE ALSO: Google’s Book Deal Now Officially Being Investigated By Justice Dept
Microsoft and Yahoo both confirm their involvement to the NYT. Amazon is not commenting, although CEO Jeff Bezos has criticized the settlement very publicly before. “It doesn’t seem right that you should do something — kind of get a prize for violating a large series of copyrights,” he said at a conference in June.
Opponents have raised various concerns that the deal gives Google (NSDQ: GOOG) too much control, especially over rights to so-called “orphan works” that authors have abandoned. There had already been murmurs that at least Microsoft was putting up cash to oppose the settlement. Wired.com reported in March that the company was funding a group at NYU that was planning on filing a brief with the court reviewing the settlement that encouraged the court to solicit the opinions of the Justice Department.
@josephtartakoff
Aug 20, 2009 6:51 PM ET
Posted In: Legal, Regulatory, Companies, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
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