Google Now Facing Visual Artists

April 8, 2010

The end of Google’s trials and tribulations will not end with Judge Chin’s ruling on the settlement with authors and publishers (hopefully to come over the next few months). Visual artists are now threatening to sue Google.

“We are seeking justice and fair compensation for visual artists whose work appears in the 12 million books and other publications Google has illegally scanned to date,” said Victor Perlman, general counsel for the American Society of Media Photographers. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07google.html).

Is this a fair request by the visual artists in the interest of their copyrights or is this merely a ploy for visual artists to bank in on the digital library and archival movement that is Google Books.

See NY Times article for more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07google.html