U.S. Register of Copyrights Objects to Google Book Settlement
The Google Book Settlement Fairness Hearing in October is going to be a wild one. Federal Judge Chin has ruled that the hearing will take place, but acknowledged that there have been 400 filings regarding the hearing and that most of the people filing papers want to speak at the hearing. That's clearly not going to happen. The judge has told everyone who wants a say at the hearing to email the court by September 21st. They'll get an email back by the 25th letting them know if they get to address the court.
In addition to all the objections to the deal that have been filed, now Congress itself may have an objection to the deal. The actual U.S. Register of Copyrights testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee, telling the senators that they'd better wake up and do something or Google is about to totally rewrite U.S. copyright law, which is under the purview of congress.
In addition to a heavy reading load for the court, the deal took another twist last week, this one political. At a September 10 hearing before the competition subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee U.S. Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters criticized the deal, telling lawmakers it was "fundamentally at odds with the law," and that it usurped a role occupied solely by Congress. Association of American Publishers' Allan Adler told PW he politely disagreed with Peters' assessment and said publishers would respond to Peters' more directly in their forthcoming brief to the court.
It remains to be seen, however, what if any interest beyond general oversight Congress has in looking at the deal at this late stage. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, suggested that Congress should stay away. "At this point, we don’t have a role to play," she said, adding that the settlement was “the private sector achieving what we failed to achieve" in terms of legislation. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, however, suggested that the settlement was a "classic case of legislating from the bench." Adler said he believes it is unlikely the hearing will result in any action, and that all parties will have to look to the court for a determination. Whether the court looks to the Copyright Office, meanwhile is another matter.
There's another weird twist in this case. According to Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) Judge Chin is going to be nominated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by President Obama, so he may recuse himself from the case or leave the bench early. If a new judge is thrown in the middle of this nightmare of a case, he or she is going to need more time to get up to speed.
