India Vs Google Books
By Bala Shah

Google spent many years and tens of millions of dollars trying to make Google Books a reality.  The Google Books Project would involve Google paying at least $125 Million to scan in all books and make them available online. Not surprisingly, such a global project would meet some global opposition.  The biggest worry was that an American private company would control access to the online books and thereby monitor who was reading what.  Could this information be misused?  What about the copyright of books whose author had passed on and his / her family were not interested, or not in a position to, fight legal battles to keep the copyright?   Would Google take ownership of such orphan works?  A number of foreign Governments also protested that a deal in USA would override their local laws.

Earlier this week, a New York Court rejected the settlement that Google had offered the owners of books.  Effectively, this court judgment has stalled Google Books for the short term at least.  The New York Court in its judgment mentioned India’s concerns quite a few times.  TheJudgment reads in part

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Foreign rights holders remain concerned, however, because many foreign books were registered in the United States to ensure coverage under U.S. law, especially those registered before 1989. Indeed, France and Germany, as well as many authors and publishers from countries such as Austria, Belgium, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom continue to object to the ASA (Amended Service Agreement), even with the revisions.

Many foreign objectors express concern as to whether the ASA would violate international law, including the Berne Convention and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Indian authors and publishers, for example, object that the ASA "continues to provide Google with sweeping rights to exploit works of Indian authors / publishers under copyright protection without their express permission / consent, a violation of international and Indian copyright laws."
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