Attorneys from Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, LLP, representing Consumer Watchdog, will appear in federal court today to urge the rejection of the revised Google Books settlement because it remains anticompetitive and violates both U.S. and international law.
The proposed class action settlement case stems from a suit brought by The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.
“The proposed amendments to the Google Book Settlement are insufficient, and the settlement remains fundamentally flawed. If approved, this settlement would improperly destroy potentially millions of absent authors’ exclusive copyrights and would give Google an unfair monopoly that is not in the public interest,” said Daniel Fetterman of Kasowitz, Benson.
In essence Google’s latest arguments seem to boil down to this: ‘Our motto is don’t be evil, so you can trust us to control the world’s digital library.’ Consumer Watchdog supports digitizing books. The problem is this proposed settlement gives unfair control to one company and the law says you can’t do that no matter how good they say their intentions are,” said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate for Consumer Watchdog.
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP is a national firm with more than 325 lawyers specializing in complex, highly sophisticated litigation.
