Citing two anonymous sources, Bloomberg reported last night that the parties are in discussions with the Justice Department in advance of tomorrow’s deadline for the DOJ to file their views on the Google Books Settlement case with Judge Denny Chin. “The discussions are aimed at modifying the settlement in ways that ease Justice Department concerns that the deal would let Google discourage other companies from competing for access to the books online, said one of the people.”
Meanwhile, Google ceo Eric Schmidt tries a little pro-active public relations. In an interview with Search Engine Land he mostly addresses the specious suggestion from misguided op-eders that the parties should go back to “square one.” Schmidt says, “I would like to hear from the critics a better solution to the problem as opposed to criticisms of the solution that we arrived at after four years of negotiation. I read this stuff, and it strikes me that people who only criticize have as their interest the current status quo.” (The thousands of pages of motions before Judge Chin actually contain plenty of proposed modifications….)
Schmidt adds: “I think if anything, the criticism tells you how important it is to get the settlement going because without a settlement, you will end up in a situation where people doing what Google’s doing, this will ultimately be sorted out in the courts, because the government is not going to pass any laws in this area any time soon. At least there seems to be no desire to do that.”
Additionally, an announcement is expected today confirming that two million of Google’s public domain book scans will be available for printing via the Espresso Book Machine. Wired says that Google and Espresso maker On Demand would each receive one dollar for every volume printed. (Google says they’ll give their proceeds to charity.)
Bloomberg
SEL
Wired