Google and the World Brain Page #7

at least jointly agree to with

the authors and publishers and so

forth but it remains somewhat

controversial, so I'm surprised at

the amount of resistance that's had

but, ultimately, I'm optimistic that

we're going to be successful.

It's important to understand that

the Google Books element was

negotiated by a small number

of people claiming to represent

authors and claiming to

represent publishers,

but not every author and not every

publisher was in the room

so once the settlement's announced,

there's a six-month period

in which it's required to notify them

about the terms of the settlement

and give them a chance to opt out

if they don't like the settlement

or to give them a chance to object to

the terms of the settlement.

The first time I realised Google

scanned my book was 2009, November.

Actually my lawyer called me

and he said, "Do you know your book

be scanned by Google Book?"

The search engine Google came under

intense fire from Chinese authors

as the digital library used books

written by Chinese authors

without permission.

The reader, they can search my book

by the keyword and maybe around

100 keyword, but I remember the most

ridiculous keyword of my book

is 'bed', B-E-D, and 'telephone'.

That's two words I remember

and that made me laugh.

This is not intellectual at all.

Me and my lawyer

decide to sue Google.

My lawyer asked 60,000,

something like that.

My journalist friends said, "I don't

want to help you but I know you.

"Why you ask such low money?"

so I wrote this blog that night.

When I wake up, it's, like,

400 messages at my blog saying,

"Damage this girl,"

and, "This girl's a b*tch."

Blah blah blah. Really disgusting,

horrible messages.

I become a public enemy after Google

say they will leave China.

Also, Chinese young people started

sending flowers to the Google office

which has made even my best friend

be confused.

She say, "Is the government sending

you to sue Google?"

Before the court is

the plaintiff's motion to approve

the settlement as fair

and reasonable.

Numerous materials

have been submitted.

Did anyone count up

the number of objections?

We have in the range of 500.

Thank you.

I flew to New York

and it was very exciting.

There were 25 outside parties that

made presentations to Judge Chin.

There were 500 objections

for him to read.

The judge basically said, "I'm not

going to rule from the bench,"

but people were

hanging on every word.

This is a fascinating turning point

actually in the whole history of

knowledge and of access to knowledge

and it was being played out

in a New York courtroom

before Judge Denny Chin

in the Southern Federal District

Court of New York.

I confirm that one of my books has

been digitally scanned by Google

without my permission.

Because this act is a clear

violation of the copyright

law of Japan, I have asked

the Metropolitan Police Department

of Japan to criminally charge Google

and its CEO for this violation.

The court's decision was to

a considerable extent going to

determine the future of books,

of digital books.

The proposed settlement results in

a de facto monopoly on information

and an intensification of media

concentration on Google.

As a result, the right of free

access to information,

as well as the existing cultural

diversity in both Germany and Europe

will be usurped.

Would it be basically in the hands

of commercial speculators,

whose responsibility was

to their shareholders

or would it be organised

for the public good?

There was a risk

of monopolisation there,

that the Department of Justice saw.

The proposed settlement would

establish a marketplace

in which only one competitor

would have authority to use

a vast array of works.

The risk was that Google could

basically hold the whole

world hostage to

the price of access to these books

and, because no-one else

would have a licence,

no-one else would have a

corpus like the corpus they had,

we'd have to pay whatever

they wanted to charge.

The core concerns seem to

be that this would diminish

the availability to read

books in private.

That is not true. This service would

be available at public libraries.

You can walk into your neighbourhood

library, you can sit down at

a free access terminal, anonymously.

You can search for and read a book.

And if you want to

look at it at home, then what?

Well, if you want to look at it

at home, that may present an issue.

Here's the rub.

This is a tension

between requirements for security

that are insisted on in order

not to have these works be

sort of freely disseminated.

In my view, the Google Book Search

settlement is no different from the

piracy cases in which the Internet

and digital technology are abused.

I strongly urge the court to reject

the proposed settlement.

I remember there being

a Japanese writer there

and the language was very vivid.

It was as though, you know,

copyright was going to

be swept away,

and that copyright was going to be

destroyed and the approval of this

settlement was going to, you know,

make the United States out of

compliance with treaty obligations.

There's a real risk that, should

the court approve the settlement,

members of the World Trade

Organisation will initiate

settlement proceedings

against the US government.

And if the US government were

to lose such proceedings,

which is a very real possibility,

our partners would be

entitled to impose trade sanctions

against the United States.

You don't use words

like that very often.

It wasn't kind of like,

"Oh, gee, there are these issues

"and we're concerned

about something."

It was like,

"THIS VIOLATES A TREATY!

"HOW CAN THE JUDGE DO SOMETHING

THAT'S GOING TO VIOLATE A TREATY?

"THIS IS CRAZY!"

I am not going to rule today.

There is just too much to digest.

I will reserve decision.

There's much to think about.

All rise.

And then Judge Chin

thought about it.

He thought about it

and he thought about it.

He took a very long time and every

morning I got up and I thought,

"Is Judge Chin going to

announce his decision today?"

And when he finally did,

I myself felt thrilled

because the court actually refused

to sanction the settlement.

Then Google Book Search could not

take place, at least according

to Google's original business plan.

US circuit judge Denny Chin said

the creation of a universal library

would benefit many

but would simply go too far.

Chin said the settlement of

a class action law suit that the

company reached with US authors

and publishers would grant Google

significant rights

to exploit entire books

without permission

of copyright owners.

Chin also said the deal gives Google

a significant advantage over

competitors and it would be

rewarding it for engaging in

wholesale copying of copyrighted

works without permission.

I think you could read the decision

by Judge Chin as a defeat

of the screen by the book.

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