October 30th, 2008
Viacom perks up at Google Books settlement
Google’s settlement with authors could be good news for Viacom, the New York Times’ Miguel Helft says.
That’s because the authors at least think Google has conceded that it needs prior permission in order to scan books. Under the agreement authors must give permission for works to be included in Google Book Search. But Google’s top lawyer David Drummond says there was no legal concession, just a business deal.
There is no acknowledgment that we had to have permissions to scan or show snippets.
Viacom will argue otherwise. The cable programmer, of course, has sued Google for $1 billion for copyright infringement via YouTube.
“The publisher agreement is, at last, acceptance of what’s obvious to everyone but Google,” said Michael Fricklas, general counsel of Viacom. “Copying and distributing copyrighted works requires permission from the copyright owner.”
