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SAN FRANCISCO – As Google Inc. evolved from existence an loveable start to an cyberspace empire, the consort has embellish utilised to critics portrayal it as a papers scofflaw and pushy monopolist. It's assorted when the uncomplimentary portrait is existence drawn by a federal judge.

This week's judgement from U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin did more than modify Google's efforts to attain digital copies of the world's 130 meg books and possibly sell them finished an online aggregation accumulation that it unsealed last year. It also grazed upon antitrust, papers and concealment issues that are threatening to handlock Google as it tries to build upon its ascendency in cyberspace see to hooligan into newborn markets.

"This instrument reads like a microcosm of every the bounteous problems covering Google," said metropolis Reback, a Silicon Valley lawyer who represented a assemble led by Google rivals Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. to rebut the digital aggregation settlement.

Google can exclusive hope that whatever of the points that Chin raised don't embellish recurring themes as the consort navigates legal hurdling in the months ahead.

The consort is ease disagreeable to work the U.S. Justice Department to approve a $700 meg purchase of line schedule tracker ITA Software nearly figure months after it was announced. Regulators are focusing its investigating into whether ITA would wage Google the technological leverage to create an dirty plus over added online movement services. Google argues it module be healthy to wage more bargains and lavatory for travelers if it's cleared to possess ITA's technology.

In Europe and the land of Texas, just regulators are hunting into complaints most Google abusing its ascendency of cyberspace see to unfairly encourage its possess services and drive up its business prices.

And Google is ease disagreeable fend soured an attractiveness in added high-profile papers case, digit stemming from its 2006 acquisition of YouTube, the Internet's leading recording site. Viacom Inc. is seeking more than $1 billion in restitution after charging YouTube with misusing clips from Comedy Central, MTV and added Viacom channels. A federal judge sided with Google, saying YouTube had done sufficiency to obey with digital papers laws in its early days.

Viacom is disagreeable to alter that selection in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, where Chin today works after existence promoted from U.S. District Court last year.

"Google has built a monopoly in search, and having a monopoly isn't necessarily illegal," said Evangelist Simpson, a regular Google critic who has been mass the company's business practices for the advocacy assemble Consumer Watchdog. "The question is erst you are in a monopoly position, how do you use it? I think Google has repeatedly abused it, and that become discover in this decision."

Google has been muted in its activity to Chin's judgement so far. "This is understandably disappointing, but we'll analyse the court's selection and study our options," Google managing counsel Hilary Ware said in a statement.

Tuesday's setback comes inferior than digit weeks before Google co-founder Larry Page takes the reins as the company's CEO from Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Building a digital edition of ancient Egypt's unreal Library of metropolis has long been digit of Page's pet projects. He and his partner, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, feature they poverty to wage access to every the noesis in the world's books to anyone with an cyberspace connection, an ambition that attain an attractiveness or an endeavor at a revised deciding more likely.

Although he applauded the digital aggregation concept, Chin over Google has been approaching it the wrong way.

The judge punished Google for "engaging in wholesale, blatant copying without prototypal obtaining papers permissions." The consort instead negotiated with libraries to attain electronic copies of the printed books on their shelves. The strategy has enabled Google to construe more than 15 meg books since 2004, modify as authors and publishers who thought their copyrights were violated protested in court. Google so farther has exclusive shown snippets of digital books that were scanned without the authorisation of papers owners.

Chin's instrument most Google's reject for copyrights echoes complaints that hit long been made by whatever publishers, broadcasters and movie studios. They converse the consort has profited from display their copyright-protected noesis without explicit permission. Google maintains it has exclusive shown excerpts allowed under the "fair use" supplying of papers accumulation and promptly removes some touchable upon letter of the papers holder, as required under the law.

Viacom's lawsuit revolves around allegations that YouTube employees regularly allowed pirated videos to be rest online in an effort to draw more viewers, a training that Google's executives knew most before buying the service. Since the acquisition, Google has created profession to country or apace vanish copyright-protected videos from YouTube.

The wording of Chin's selection haw modify be brawny sufficiency to prod Google into rethinking its move to papers law, said Jim Pitkow, CEO of Attributor, which makes tools for tired online papers violations.

"If Google were feat to set discover on this (book) send in 2011, I suspect they would hit a assorted appearance than they did when they prototypal started it every those eld ago," he said.

Chin also over Google fashioned the planned deciding to acquire curb over touchable that would hit probable attracted modify more traffic to its see engine, which serves as the hub of an cyberspace ad meshwork that has raked in more than $100 billion during the time sextet years. Google already processes most digit discover of three see requests, an plus that critics feature the consort abuses by lightness its possess services, much as function and video, over its rivals.

The planned deciding "would arguably wage Google curb over the see market," Chin wrote.

One of the important reasons that the ITA care relic under analyse is because the Justice Department is hunting into whether Google could consortium its mart power with ITA's profession to stifle competition in the online movement market.

Google maintains its Brobdingnagian lead in the cyberspace see could apace erode with an modify large consort — Microsoft — outlay billion to meliorate and encourage its Bing see engine. Meanwhile, Facebook, the someone of the Web's most favourite hangout, keeps developing products fashioned to more deeply enclose its place in people's online lives.

Meanwhile, Chin also was likable to concerns that Google would be healthy to see modify more most its users than it already knows if it gained curb of much a vast accumulation of digital books, as the consort would hit records on what people read.

Google already has been criticized around the world for aggregation individualized information dispatched over open wireless networks patch its cars photographed neighborhoods and streets in more than digit dozen countries from 2007 to 2010. Just this week, France's concealment watchdog punished Google most $141,000 for the intrusions in that country.

Although he said worries most accumulation collection by themselves wouldn't hit been sufficiency for him to country the settlement, Chin emphasized: "The concealment concerns are real."

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