[Web4lib] Library Journal editorial on Google book settlement

[B.G. Sloan]

New LJ editorial on the Google book settlement:
 
Fialkoff, Francine. Editorial: The Google Wars. Library Journal, 9/21/2009. (Will appear in the 10/1/09 print issue).
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6698035.html
 
Among other things, the editorial says the following about the Authors Guild's participation in the settlement:
 
"It is unfathomable that the Authors Guild, whose members write books for the trade market, speaks for all authors, or that it could fairly represent more than its own members’ concerns...a letter to the court from University of California–Berkeley Law School’s Pamela Samuelson raises several issues pertaining to academic authors. Their works, notes Samuelson, comprise a much larger portion of the institutional database, scanned as it is from academic libraries, than do those of Authors Guild members. Samuelson, a professor of law and information, and some 65 cosigners to her letter write, 'Academic authors would...have insisted on much different terms than the Authors Guild did, especially in...pricing of institutional subscriptions.'"
 
Bernie Sloan