Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo Band Together against Google

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3 technology heavyweights, (Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo) are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library. They are banding together to take on the mighty Google by forming Open Book Alliance (OBA).

The 3 heavyweights are in talks to sign up to the Open Book Alliance (OBA) being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works. The OBA is being spearheaded by the Internet Archive, a longtime critic of Google's crusade to make digital copies of as many printed books as possible.

The OBA hopes to rally opposition to Google's digital book ambitions and ultimately persuade a federal judge to block or revise the Internet search leader's plans. A growing number of critics already have filed objections to Google's book settlement, but none have the clout that the OBA figures to wield with three of the world's best-known technology companies on board. Opponents of Google's settlement have raised various concerns that the deal gives Google too much control, especially over rights to so-called "orphan works" that authors have abandoned.

"Google is trying to monopolize the library system," the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle told. "If this deal goes ahead, they're making a real shot at being 'the' library and the only library."

Peter Brantley, the Internet Archive's director of access, provided some of the details about the alliance's members and objectives in a Thursday interview. Both Microsoft and Yahoo! have confirmed their intention to join the alliance. Amazon declined to comment because the group hasn't been formally announced yet. The Open Book Alliance also will include an assortment of nonprofit groups.

Among other things, the alliance will try to persuade the U.S. Justice Department that Google's broad settlement with authors and publishers could undermine competition in the digital book market just as more consumers are gravitating toward electronic readers like Amazon.com's Kindle.




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