RSSYahoo Refuses to Help Google in Book Case
By Ed Oswald | Published November 30, 2006, 3:52 PM
Google will not be receiving any help from Yahoo in the case brought against it by the Author's Guild, the Associated Press reports.
Calling the company's subpoena an attempt to force it to divulge trade secrets, Yahoo said Thursday that it has refused to testify. A 17-page rejection letter was sent to Google last week, and Yahoo's reasoning sounds a lot like that of Amazon, which rejected a subpoena in October.
Amazon also accused Google of similar ulterior motives, and directed it to information on book search methods that are available publicly on the Web. The information requested was "highly confidential," it claimed.
"There is simply no need for Google to be peering into the minds and computers of Yahoo employees," the AP quotes the document as saying.
Google is fighting a lawsuit brought against it by the Authors Guild in September 2005. In that suit, the group accuses the search giant of "massive copyright infringement," and alleges that Google never approached them for permission to index their books.
In its defense, Google points to the fact it has set up a system for authors and publishers to opt out of the index. It would also direct users to purchase the full book if they would require more information than the search function provides.
One subpoena is pending against Microsoft. In addition, Google has requests out to several other smaller companies, the AP reported. However, Google is not discussing the case with the media.
Whats the difference between making copyrighted books and copyrighted music or movies available "to research"? shouldn't they all be treated equally?
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|Opt in is better than opt out imho. Thats how MS and Amazon do this. So yeah, why don't they just spin this around and then there'd be no more trouble, hopefully.
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|I fail to see how the indexing of part of a book (need I remind you of the fact Amazon.com does the same thing? Yes? Heh. Look up a book on Amazon. Chances are, you can read at least 10-30 pages of the book!)
That being said, others have stated rather authoritatively that Google's indexing is within the bounds of copyright. If it pushes the envelope, then so does Disney and so many other companies' Gestapo-like requirements that copyright extend well past the original intent of "50 years past the author's death". This is far more heinous than Google's efforts, in my opinion. (and before you jump down my throat, I'm an aspiring author myself, so am keeping an eye on things like this!)
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|Google is way overstepping their bounds with this one against the authors guild. They are so clearly in the wrong its not even funny.
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