In advance of Monday’s forthcoming settlement, the Open Book Alliance has issued a list of what it calls “baseline requirements” for Settlement 2.0:
In advance of Monday’s forthcoming settlement, the Open Book Alliance has issued a list of what it calls “baseline requirements” for Settlement 2.0:
- The settlement must not grant Google an exclusive set of rights (de facto or otherwise) or result in any one entity gaining control over access to and distribution of the world’s largest digital database of books.
- Authors and other rights holders must retain meaningful rights and the ability to determine the use of their works that have been scanned by Google.
- The settlement must result in the creation of a true digital library that grants all researchers and users, commercial and non-commercial, full access that guarantees the ability to innovate on the knowledge it contains.
- All class members must be treated equitably.
- The settlement cannot provide for competition by making others engage in future litigation.
- Congress must retain the exclusive authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to set copyright policy.
- All rights holders impacted by the settlement must have a meaningful ability to receive notice, understand its terms and opt-out.
- The parties that negotiated the settlement must live under the terms to which they seek to bind others, rather than their own separately negotiated arrangements.
The OBA’s rhetoric is always fun to watch. It has a wonderfully authoritative tone: this is how it’s going to be, and if the parties don’t think so, then, well, they’ve got another think coming. Having now seen Gary Reback in action at D is for Digitize, I can see where they get the style.