LISNews: Librarian News

The European Union's executive body will study plans by Google to make millions of books available online after Germany said the Internet company's project flouts EU copyright law.

The bloc's industry ministers agreed on Thursday to ask the European Commission to look at how Google's settlement with authors in the United States affect writers' rights in the EU.

As seen on Identi.ca:

1. segphault: I'm really enamored with the Google Wave concept. It's a federated communication system with an open protocol! http://is.gd/ImYj
2. alphakamp: @segphault I really dont see why/what they are doing, isnt this essentially what !omb is? why do this but drop jaiku?
3. segphault: @alphakamp: Wave isn't a replacement for OMB. It's a completely different kind of communication. Lots of potential for integrating the two.
4. alphakamp: @segphault ah now that makes sense, glad someone could interpret better than I can, #googlewave

Available reporting:
PCMag Digital Network
WebWare/CNET
PC World

In a move that could blunt some of the criticism of Google for its settlement of a lawsuit over its book-scanning project, the company signed an agreement with the University of Michigan that would give some libraries a degree of oversight over the prices Google could charge for its vast digital library.

Google has faced an onslaught of opposition over the far-reaching settlement with authors and publishers. Complaints include the exclusive rights the agreement gives Google to publish online and to profit from millions of so-called orphan books, out-of-print books that are protected by copyright but whose rights holders cannot be found.

Full story here.

Brewster Kahle: If approved, the settlement would produce not one but two court-sanctioned monopolies. Google will have permission to bring under its sole control information that has been accessible through public institutions for centuries. In essence, Google will be privatizing our libraries.