Grub Street Printing Newsletter - Google Settlement

DOJ Asks for More Changes

The Department of Justice issued its comments on the proposed Google Settlement on February 4^th and has provided eight specific problems that continue to need attention.

Justice has filed a statement of interest in the case and recommended that the judge postpones ruling and allow the parties to resume negotiations.

Even before the DOJ issued its comments critics of the revision voiced their dissatisfaction with a number of points that were not addressed or changed, including opt-out vs. opt-in, Google Book's immunity to future claims, and legal, monopolistic rights to copyrighted orphan works.

The opt -out option originally would have affected all books with a U.S. Copyright published after Jan. 5, 2009. The deadline to opt-out then was last September 4.

Hopefully Google Book (named Google Print in 2004) will once again roll back it's deadlines to claim ownership and opt-out of the agreement as negotiations seem destined to continue. The most recent deadline was Jan. 28, 2010, eight days before the DOJ comments were released.

Google is no stranger to the opt-out option and has been sued by a number of parties over a variety of its actions. Google's Street View service was sued for invading homeowners privacy both here and in the UK. Google's standard defense is that people are free to opt out after the fact.

The Onion put a humorous twist on the Google opt-out system last year and a You Tube video shows how ubiquitous yet invisible opt-in, opt-out is on the internet.

Here are more reactions to the DOJ comments.

The Paper Situation

Demand for paper in the US is expected to decline by 1.2% in 2010, following an 11.8% drop in 2009. Surprisingly, uncoated free sheet (e.g. offset, text, etc.) is expected to rise by nearly 2%. Domestic paper manufacturers also face increased paper imports into an already soft market place. Downward price pressure is coming from Asia and Indonesia which are currently offering uncoated free sheet at lower prices than coated.

I would encourage all publishers to review the Lacey Act which takes effect this April and requires chain of custody documentation establishing the origin of the trees used to make the paper in an effort to stop the use of rainforest trees in the making of paper products, sold or manufactured in the United States.

International Paper has announced plans to close it's Franklin, VA plant this spring idling three paper machines and 1,100 employees.