The U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) has begun an inquiry into the antitrust implications of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service. The settlement, announced in October, gives Google the right to display the books online and to profit from them by selling access to individual texts and selling subscriptions to its entire collection to libraries and other institutions. Revenue would be shared among Google, authors and publishers.
USDOJ lawyers recently notified the parties to the settlement, including Google, and representatives for the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, that they were looking into various antitrust issues related to the far-reaching agreement.
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