The revised Google Books settlement agreement may quiet international opponents, but it still gives Google a monopoly on commercializing out-of-print books where the copyrights are unclaimed and fails to protect consumer privacy, opponents said on Monday. Also troubling to critics is the fact that the revised settlement circumvents traditional copyright provisions by allowing Google to digitize orphan works without first getting rights holder permission, while any Google competitors are blocked from doing so barring legislation granting them licensing rights. "For the millions of volumes of orphan books that Google has already scanned in, they can offer those without risk of anyone coming forward and suing them for infringement," said John Simpson, a consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog.
Continue reading...Saturday, November 14, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Google and the Authors Guild filed a new version of a deal to create a massive online library on Friday in hopes of answering antitrust and copyright concerns in the United States and overseas. Critics of the deal have been a varied group that includes Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft, the National Writers Union, Consumer Watchdog and singer Arlo Guthrie.
Continue reading...Friday, August 28, 2009
In recent months, two heavily detailed, annotated versions of confidential Google slide presentations -- one dealing with competition issues, the other with behavioral targeting -- have been published by a Santa Monica–based group called Consumer Watchdog. The annotations are highly critical of Google and seek to rebut the search giant's arguments.
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The recent incident involved a privacy group called Consumer Watchdog. The organization and Google have had a history of run-ins. Consumer Watchdog has been critical of Google in terms of privacy, and has been aggressive at times in publicly challenging the search giant, as can be seen in this video ironically documented on YouTube, which is owned by Google.
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Monday, November 16, 2009
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