The Justice Department has filed a brief as a party in interest to the Google Books settlement ahead of the fairness hearing scheduled for October. Read DOJ's brief
here.
DOJ is conducting a separate investigation into whether the proposed settlement agreement would violate antitrust laws. A good portion of the brief discusses the antitrust ramifications.
DOJ also expressed concern as to whether the settlement agreement adequately represents the interests of certain members of the class, namely, orphan works owners:
The structure of the Proposed Settlement itself, therefore, pits the interests of one part of the class (known rightsholders) against the interests of another part of the class (orphan works rightsholders). Google’s commercial use of orphan works will generate revenues, which will b deposited with the Registry. Any unclaimed revenues, however, will inure to the benefit of the Registry and its registered rightsholders. Thus, the Registry and its registered rightsholders will benefit at the expense of every rightsholder who fails to come forward to claim profits from Google’s commercial use of his or her work. And, as noted above, the broad scope of the Proposed Settlement’s licensing provisions exacerbate this conflict. The greater the economic exploitation of the works of unknown rightsholders by Google and the Registry, the stronger the incentive for known rightsholders to retain the unclaimed revenues for themselves.
Brief at 13.
The Brief also raises the question -- which we have also raised in the past -- of whether the court's approval of the settlement agreement will be tantamount to a redifinition of copyright that should really be handled by Congress.