From the San Jose Mercury News
Google in dispute over book project
By Elise Ackerman
Google's effort to bring millions of books and some of the world's greatest university collections online is running into some surprising opposition from librarians, academics and consumer advocates.
Last week, a group of authors that included John Steinbeck's son and daughter-in-law, musician Arlo Guthrie, and university professors from around the country persuaded a federal judge to delay approval of a court settlement that would have given the Internet giant unprecedented rights to digitize and sell out-of-print books whose copyright status is murky.
"It is clear to us that the settlement, if approved, will shape the future of reading, research, writing and publication practices for decades to come," Pamela Samuelson, the co-director for the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology [and professor in hte School of Information], wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin.
This story also appeared in the Contra Costa Times