Yahoo rejects Google subpoena

Google’s subpoena of Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo to help fight a lawsuit against a group of publishers and the Authors Guild has been rejected by the company’s search rivals Yahoo and Amazon.

Google said that to defend its controversial Google Book Search digitisation project and widespread digitisation of copyright-protected works in libraries, it had to be able to access details from similar projects being initiated by its rivals.

The company had offered assurances that any information provided by rivals would remain confidential, and the US judge in the case ruled that any information would only be used for defending the lawsuit.

But Yahoo has followed Amazon’s lead in rejecting Google’s request for lists of books, costs, publishing deals and sales figures. Indeed, Yahoo has even accused Google of a brazen attempt to discover its trade secrets.

As part of the Open Content Alliance , Yahoo and Microsoft have been working with libraries and businesses to create a fully digitised database of print-originated content – unlike Google, whose failure to seek permission from copyright owners to make digital copies is the basis of the case being brought against it by the Authors Guild.

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