The Google Book Search Settlement - James Gibson Op-ed in the Washington Post

November 3, 2008

Google's decision to pay tens of millions of dollars to settle copyright infringement suits in connection with its massive Book Search initiative may put the internet search giant in a stronger legal and competitive position than a court victory would have, according to Associate Professor of Law and Intellectual Property Institute Director James Gibson in a Washington Post Op-ed piece. By abandoning its defense that scanning copyrighted books for online access is fair use and therefore not subject to royalties, Prof. Gibson argues, Google helps establish standard industry practice that will make it more difficult for competing entrepreneurs to make this same legal argument. This will raise the costs of providing online access to books to a price that few companies other than Google will be able to afford. Read the article (free login required).