How to Fix the Google Book Search Settlement

Abstract:     
The proposed settlement in the Google Book Search case should be approved with strings attached. The project will be immensely good for society, and the proposed deal is a fair one for Google, for authors, and for publishers. The public interest demands, however, that the settlement be modified first. It creates two new entities - the Books Rights Registry Leviathan and the Google Book Search Behemoth - with dangerously concentrated power over the publishing industry. Left unchecked, they could trample on consumers in any number of ways. We the public have a right to demand that those entities be subject to healthy, pro-competitive oversight, and so we should.

Keywords: google, book search, copyright

JEL Classifications: K00

Accepted Paper Series