In response to Judge Chin’s decision announced today to reject the Google Books Settlement, Steve Pociask, President of the American Consumer Institute released the following statement:

 

“We applaud Judge Chin’s decision to reject this settlement as it would have given the most dominant online firm a significant advantage over its rivals and online book competitors like Amazon.  As concern about Google’s growing dominance continues to mount – with calls from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle for closer scrutiny of the company’s market dominance and business practices – the last thing they need is a lockup another important market.  Since the settlement is the result of Google violating copyright protections by scanning books without the authors’ permission, this settlement would be a reward for illegal behavior and a willful disregard for Intellectual Property.”

 

“Additionally, given Google’s unlawful collection of data from WiFi networks and its general lack of respect for privacy, consumers were right to worry that this deal would give Google even more access to their information.  Google already knows how we find web content, and retains website browsing history.  If this deal were to go through, they would soon know what we are reading too.”

 

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