The project has turned into a crusade for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who have for years dreamt of making books collecting dust on library book shelves accessible around the clock to anyone with an internet connection.
That ambition has won Google broad support from librarians, disabled rights activists, and big companies like Sony Corp., which wants to tap into the digital book index to feed its own electronic reading device.
Although the settlement’s goals are admirable, the Justice Department said the deal doesn’t do enough to protect the copyrights of orphan works and authors outside the United States.
The United States’ top copyright cop and the governments in Germany and France also have raised objections about the settlement overstepping its bounds.
Consumer watchdogs are worried about the settlement opening a door for Google to collect too much information about the books that people are reading. Google has tried to address those concerns by promising to draw up a separate policy governing its digital library.
The Justice Department didn’t address the privacy issues in its brief.
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