Probe Into Google Books

Google's grand project to digitally archive the world's body of printed knowledge may have just run into a serious roadblock. To recap: Google Book Search aims to scour university libraries across the country, scan every book it can, offer a short excerpt for free on the Web, and sell the entirety of each book, or access to the catalog, for a fee. This both advances Google's goal of making all information available to the public and nets a tidy piece of revenue for the company. But not everyone is thrilled with the project. Specifically, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed a class action against Google (GOOG), arguing that the company was trying to sell digital copies of copyrighted books without adequately compensating the copyright holders. The parties settled last year, but a judge has yet to sign onto the agreement.

Now, the New York Times reports, the Justice Department's antitrust division is probing the deal to see if it gives Google monopoly power over books that are still protected by copyright but have fallen out of print. Critics of the deal have long complained that the revenue-sharing agreement in the settlement only covers Google, and other companies or nonprofits that want to set up rival archives could be forced to pay exorbitantly higher royalties, making the cost of getting into the business too high and leaving Google the only game in town. According to the Times, that argument seems to have caught the attention of the Justice Department.

In fact, Justice lawyers have reportedly been talking to representatives of the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that aims to set up a similar catalog of digital literature. BusinessWeek reporter Rob Hof talked to Internet Archive Director of Access Peter Brantley, who claimed that the questions covered the electronic book market, library subscription prices, and the question of whether anyone is presently assembling a digital book archive similar to Google's. The Justice Department has also notified both Google and the Authors Guild that it is investigating critics' complaints.

Finally, Federal Judge Denny Chin, who is overseeing the settlement, has given authors and other stakeholders an additional four months to file any briefs opposing the deal. This can't bode well for Google, as the estates of Philip Dick, John Steinbeck, and Arlo Guthrie, whose lawyers asked for the extension, are in all likelihood planning to submit fresh complaints about the arrangement.

On its public policy blog, Google Book Search Director of Product Management Adam Smith wrote a post today defending the settlement. Well, it was slightly more oblique than that. Smith never mentioned the Justice Department's probe; in fact, he never even discussed the monopoly concerns raised by critics. Instead, he repeated the lofty goals of the project and painted a breathless picture of once-arcane tomes available to anyone with a few keystrokes.

"Have you ever gone to your local bookstore looking for a book only to be told that it’s not there?" Smith writes. "Or let's say you’re a second generation American interested in reading books in your parents’ native language, Greek. ... Or you're a graduate student who has been doing research on your thesis for years. You think you've read every book there is to read on your topic, but then. ..."