Amazon Balks at Google's Digital Book Reseller Offer

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 11, 2009 - 7:58am.

Washington - In a bid to appease those worried its digital book archive would give the company a monopoly, Google (NASD: GOOG) said at a Congressional hearing this week that it would allow other booksellers to sell books covered under its proposed settlement on out-of-print but in-copyright works.

The offer, outlined at the House Judiciary Committee hearing by Google chief legal officer David C. Drummond, would see any third-party retailer retain "the significant majority" of the 37% of revenue from e-book sales that Google will get from sales of titles through its digital archive, according to CNET's coverage.

However, Amazon (NASD: AMZN), the world's largest bookseller, balked at the offer during the hearing.

"The Internet has never been about intermediation," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global policy. "We're happy to work with rights holders without anybody else's help."

Also testifying at the hearing was U.S. register of copyrights Marybeth Peters, who voiced concerns that Google's book archive violates copyrights, and does not obtain adequate permissions from authors.

The Justice Department and European Commission are also examining Google's proposed settlement with the Authors Guild; the court handling the case will hear arguments on Oct. 7.

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