Google’s sweeping digital book settlement is facing extra complication and delays as photographers and illustrators prepare to file a fresh class action lawsuit against the internet company over images used in the publications it has been digitising.
The American Society of Media Photographers and a number of related trade associations are expected to file the case against Google on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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“Google is scanning in books and publications with visual images, which impedes the rights of the copyright holders of those images. We are seeking compensation for that,” said James McGuire, founding partner of law firm Mishcon de Reya, who is leading the case.
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“We are not trying to crash the party or influence what is happening with the other class action. We are just trying to get the best possible result for this class of plaintiffs,” Mr McGuire said.
Mr McGuire said losses to photographers and illustrators were likely to be “quite substantial” although it was hard to quantify an exact figure.
Plaintiffs include the Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America, the North American Nature Photography Association, and the Professional Photographers of America.
See Also: ASMP Photographers React to Google Judge's Denial (From November 5, 2009, via ASMP.org)
On November 4, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a ruling on a motion for reconsideration of the Court's earlier decision in the case of Authors Guild et al. v. Google, Inc. The effect of the decision is to exclude photographers and other creators of visual materials from participating in the settlement of the case, despite the fact that they had been part of the plaintiff class for over two years.
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) believes that the Court's decision missed the basic truth that a settlement that excludes photographic and other visual materials is neither fair nor in the public interest. If allowing photographers and other visual artists to intervene would, as the Court stated, "put the entire settlement at risk," it is because, in ASMP's view, the settlement is fundamentally flawed and should not be approved by the Court. ASMP regrets that the Court did not recognize this unfairness and, instead, opted to deprive the visual arts community of the opportunity to participate in crafting a settlement that would have given the public access to complete books instead of textual materials only.
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