Unease about Google’s power and influence is deepening

Unease about Google’s power and influence is deepening

Google’s growth has been phenomenal, but there is growing concern about its dominance.

Now Google wants to digitise hundreds of thousands of out-of-print and out-of-copyright books in the US. Some of these works are still technically in copyright, but Google has pressed on, claiming its mission is to “organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

It struck a deal with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, offering $125m to compensate for past copyright infringements. Under this plan, Google was set to keep one-third of revenues generated by sales of digital books and other income.

Problem one: the deal seemed to apply to the whole world even though it was only struck with US copyright holders.

Problem two: France and Germany are concerned that in-copyright books from their countries would be distributed in the US. The crunch issue is that, in the US, anything published before 1923 is considered to be out of copyright, and therefore open for Google. In Europe, the date is around 1870.

Problem three: authors and publishers who did not specifically opt out of the settlement would be deemed to have signed up to the deal. The US Department of Justice has since intervened.

Google’s sense of omnipotence is also reflected in its other plans. Google News, Maps and Street View have run into similar objections from content providers. Musicians Neil Young and Billy Bragg have expressed concern about Google refusing a request from the UK’s Performing Right Society for Music to pays fees for music uploaded to YouTube, which is owned by Google.

And Google is moving into new markets with software: its Chrome internet browser, web-based word processing and office tools. All this has been alarming many businesses.

US phone carrier AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Google, claiming that the Google Voice is violating US telecommunications rules. As with the book deal, Google has brushed aside the concern, claiming the US regulator has no power to investigate a web-based software application. That is despite Google Voice being in effect another phone service.

Commentators are now comparing Google to Microsoft. US economics writer John Talbott has suggested Google should be broken up. Google could become Google Hardware and Google Software. He has also argued for it to be broken up geographically, which would give the world Google China and Google Eastern Europe. Talbott’s argument is simple: monopolies like Google violate every rule of free markets.

But Whit Andrews, an analyst with global analytics company Gartner, says the US government is unlikely to do anything to stop Google, at least at this stage.

“Traditionally, in the US, there is little inclination to force vendors to share power until they are seen to abuse it,” Andrews says. “Google has been successful in not abusing its power. If that changed then you would see a real upswell of frustration.”

But Andrews concedes that many more could start questioning Google’s mantra of “do no evil”. “In the United States, the statement ‘we will not be evil’ is very simple but when you become a global company it is less simple,” he says.

Simply put, Google could turn into a villain.