Discussions between Google and the Associated Press about renewing their content licensing deal continue, I assume, but all’s quiet recently on the negotiation front. I want to disrupt that. It would be wrong in this particular case for both parties to reach a deal where “terms are not disclosed.” The future of journalism, as well […]
After skirting one antitrust action involving a proposed ad deal with Yahoo, Google may be facing a new one — this over the proposed settlement of the lawsuit involving Google Book Search. Both the New York Times and the Wall St. Journal are reporting that the US Department of Justice is examining the terms of […]
Publishers Weekly is reporting that a judge has granted a four-month extension on the deadline for affected parties to object to or opt out of the proposed Google Book Search settlement. (You can read Judge Denny Chin’s ruling on Scribd.) Last week, a group of authors asked the presiding judge for four additional months to […]
This week’s battle royale has pitted newspapers and traditional media against Google and online news. If you somehow missed it, the CliffsNotes version is that traditional media (Associated Press, newspapers, etc.) are accusing Internet sites (search engines, news aggregators, etc.) of diverting traffic that should be going to news web sites, profiting off news content […]
The Associated Press announced an aggressive new policy whereby it is going to try and get more money for newspaper content online or take legal action against “copyright violators” and those that won’t pay. From the AP’s own press release: The Associated Press Board of Directors today announced it would launch an industry initiative to […]
Microsoft is contributing $50,000 to help challenge the Google Book Search lawsuit settlement that was announced last October. According to reports in MediaPost and Wired.com, the Microsoft money will help New York Law School with four projects — including a friend-of-the-court brief asking that the settlement be delayed until federal antitrust officials can give opinions […]
The monetization of white space across Google properties continues with an announcement this afternoon that Google is showing ads on hosted articles in Google News. Google’s announcement seems to indicate that the ads will always show beneath the story. Here’s an example from a story currently listed on the Google News home page: Will Money […]
Will the recent introduction of paid ads on Google News lead to legal issues for Google? That question is discussed today on ClickZ, where Sandra Baron of the Media Law Resource Center says publishers will be looking at what Google is doing: “A significant issue for content providers is whether or not what Google provides […]
The NY Times runs a longish article about Google Book Search, its outlook and some fears surrounding its further development. Book Search was freed from legal entanglements when Google settled a class action suit against it. That opened the door for a range of new services and the expanded scanning of out-of-print and copyrighted material.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google has settled the class action litigation entitled The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., which alleged that Google Book Search, including the company’s practice of scanning books to distribute them online, violated the copyrights of publishers and authors. Subject to final court approval, the settlement calls for Google to pay $125 million […]
Via Resource Shelf, we learn of a report in Library Journal that says Google is close to settling a three-year-old lawsuit with publishers surrounding Google Book Search. Meanwhile, some of Google’s university partners have banded together to launch their own book search service, Hathi Trust. In the legal case, five publishers sued to stop Google […]
Bloomberg reports that Google has lost two related copyright cases in German courts. Both involved display of thumbnails in image search results. Google can appeal the rulings.
Welcome to our Web site. By using our site, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms of use. Please review the following terms carefully. If you do not agree to these terms, you should not use this site. The term “Search Engine Land” or “us” or “we” or “our” […]
Music 2.0 has shared detailed screen captures and commentary on the launch of Google China Music Search. I personally cannot get to this site (“Sorry, Google is not your region provide you with the services they need” message appears”), but Music 2.0 does have screen captures and calls this Google service “more impressive” then many […]
You may recall that the failure of Google and Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central among other properties, to negotiate an agreement to work together (read: revenue sharing) resulted in a very public Viacom-Google “pissing match” over copyright infringement and whether Google had made good faith efforts to protect against it. (Danny has an […]
One of the key weaknesses Google has seemed to face in growing market share in China has been the fact that many people turn to Baidu to download music. Now the company may be fixing this, reports the Wall Street Journal:
The world of pornography often mirrors the world of “respectable” publishing and content. For years the adult film awards in LA both mocked and aspired to be like the Oscars. Porn producers are also often tech pioneers, the most famous example of which is the adoption of the VCR early on for distribution. And many […]
The Google Book Scanning project has been controversial from the start. There are a number of competitive efforts, including from Microsoft and the Yahoo-supported Open Content Alliance, which appear to replicate the competition among these companies in other areas online. Now Ars Technica explores a new phase of the debate sparked when the University of […]
Yahoo Company Art Exhibit Stirs Up Controversy from ABC reports that Sharon Louden, the artist Yahoo hired to provide art around their campus, has sued them over changing the landscape around the art. The art installed is named Reflective Tips and consists of clusters of wires with reflectors spread out along the Yahoo campus, looking […]
Today, Google News will begin offering articles from several major wire services and news agencies hosted on its own site, rather than sending readers away from Google. The move is part of licensing agreements that have been stuck over the past year. Google News is also promising better duplicate story detection, so that the original […]
Google, Microsoft-backed group ready to Defend Fair Use from Ars Technica reports Google and Microsoft are backing a new web site, organized by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), named Defend Fair Use. The web site is accepting signed petitions to support their push to make copyrights clearer to consumers. We reported earlier this […]
Google, Others Contest Copyright Warnings from the Wall Street Journal reports the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which includes Google and Microsoft, are filing a complaint with the FCC about how some content companies are taking their copyright warnings a bit too far. The CCIA would like the FCC to require these content companies, […]
Google appeals Belgian copyright law, talks ongoing from MarketWatch reports that Google is appealing the copyright case they lost in Belgium.
YouTube to test video ID with Time Warner, Disney from Reuters reports that Google’s YouTube is ready to begin testing their video fingerprinting tool on Time Warner and Walt Disney video content. The tool will be ready for testing in a month and will help prevent copyrighted materials from making its way to YouTube. The […]
Court ends ruling halting Google sex thumbnails from Reuters covers the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifting a preliminary injunction against Google over showing thumbnail images. In February 2006, a lower court ruled in favor of Perfect 10, which claimed Google violated copyright law by displaying thumbnails of images from its web site.
Belgian newspapers that sued Google to be removed from its index are now back in, having agreed to use the commonly-accepted blocking standards that they initially rejected as not being legal. Google and the group representing the papers, Copiepresse, have issued a joint statement. That’s below, along with a look at how this is a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
The most significant copyright case against Google News, that filed by Agence France-Presse back in March 2005, has now ended. Google has signed a licensing agreement with AFP that settles the suit. News from the AFP here. The statement from both companies has the usual spin that this is about "new" uses rather than Google […]
Via Google Librarian Central, Information Today has an informative overview called Google book search, libraries and their digital copies. It is written from the perspective of librarians Jill Grogg and Beth Ashmore. The entire article is worth reading, but I think it’s also worth highlighting a few of the important points regarding the project.
Iinnovate has an excellent interview with Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt. He discusses many topics around the theme of entrepreneurship and management but also touches on other topics during the 20-minute interview. One point Danny and I found interesting from the interview was how he replied to the question on “what the characteristics of an entrepreneur?” […]
A Belgium court has found that Google did violate copyright when including material from several Belgian newspapers in its search index. Google may have to pay a fine, but the ruling is far more positive for the company. Google can continue to index content without explicit permission. NOTE: The story is developing, so I will […]
Yahoo Denies Violating Belgian Copyright Law at the Wall Street Journal gives us insight into how Yahoo will be handling the legal threat by Belgian newspapers to sue Yahoo over violating copyright laws. Yahoo has claimed that they did not violate any copyright laws for “publishing snippets and links” to their newspapers. Yahoo released a […]
TheAge reports that Copiepresse, Belgium’s French-speaking newspapers, are now threatening to sue Yahoo for violating copyright laws. The group does not want Yahoo giving web users archived access to newspaper articles that the newspapers would otherwise charge for. It will be interesting to watch how Yahoo handles this.
Freeing Google Books from Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped covers him trying an interesting experiment. Can Google dictate that public domain books that it has scanned and distributed on the web really be subject to restrictions on non-commercial work? First a look at how Google provides these books. Google says that PDF downloads are available […]