The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org

ACLU, EFF and Others in Court Thursday to Challenge Google Book Search Settlement

NEW YORK

The
American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
and Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at the
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law will be in federal
court in New York on Thursday for arguments that the proposed
settlement in a lawsuit over Google Book Search should be rejected.

The groups filed an objection to the
settlement - which came in a lawsuit over Google's ability to scan and
digitize millions of books and make them available to readers online -
on behalf of a coalition of more than two dozen authors and publishers,
including ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero and best-selling
novelists Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem. The authors and
publishers argue that the agreement fails to include critical privacy
and speech protections for readers and writers concerning the
collection and potential disclosure of personally identifying
information about users who browse and read materials online at Google
Book Search.

More information about the case is available at: www.aclunc.org/googlebooks and www.eff.org/cases/authors-guild-v-google

WHAT:
Arguments in The Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. Google Inc., a challenge to a proposed settlement of a Google Book Search case that doesn't protect user privacy.

WHO:
Cindy Cohn of EFF will present arguments before U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York.

WHEN:
Thursday, February 18
10:00 a.m. EST

WHERE:
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse
Courtroom 23B
500 Pearl St.
New York, NY

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(212) 549-2666