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Alex Bowtell, Isabel Davies, Florian Dietrich, Janine Seidel, Oct 30, 2009
At first blush, the Google Books Settlement does not have effect in Europe. Google has stated that it does not currently plan to launch Google Books outside the United States. In addition, readers outside the United States will not benefit from the service even if Google does reach a settlement because the service will not be available outside the United States. But what about the European (or for that reason any other non-U.S. national) authors who previously published copyright-protected but now out-of-print publications in the United States that Google now wishes to scan and make available to the public through the Google Books facility? Critics have suggested that Google Books will effectively create a de facto monopoly on digital access to a huge number of works, including those belonging to Europeans.
