Amazon CEO Bezos has Beef with Google Book Search

Posted 06/17/2009 at 5:34am | by Paul Lilly

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Google's Book Search has been garnering a ton of attention lately, and not all of it positive. While the search giant attempts to go forward with its Book Search initiative that would give it exclusive access to digital editions of some out-of-print books, others, like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, doesn't think it's such a great idea.

"There are many forces of work looking at that and saying it doesn't seem right that you should do something, kind of get a prize for violating a large series of copyright," Bezos said.

Bezo isn't alone in criticizing Google's plans, and while the search company recently agreed to cut a $125 million check to settle its legal disputes with authors and publishers who opposed the Google Book Search service, the Justice Department has stepped in and is currently looking for any possible antitrust violations.

"We have strong opinions about that issue which I'm not going to share," Bezos said during an interview at the Wired Business Conferences. "But, clearly, that settlement in our opinion needs to be revisited and it is being revisited."

Image Credit: angelingo.usc.edu