Microsoft, Yahoo! and Amazon have joined forces to stall Google's efforts to create what could be the world's largest digital library.
The technology heavyweights have all signed up to the Open Book Alliance, which will oppose Google's crusade to make digital copies of as many printed books as possible.
A growing number of critics already have filed objections to Google's book settlement, but none have the clout that the Open Book Alliance has with the world's best-known technology companies on board.
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Both Microsoft and Yahoo have confirmed their intention to join the alliance. Amazon declined to comment because the group hasn't been formally announced yet.
The Open Book Alliance also will include an assortment of nonprofit groups.
Among other things, the alliance will try to persuade the U.S. Justice Department that Google's broad settlement with authors and publishers could undermine competition in the digital book market just as more consumers are gravitating toward electronic readers like Amazon.com's Kindle.
Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon all have financial reasons for objecting to the class-action lawsuit settlement that Google reached with authors and publishers 10 months ago.
Yahoo is one of the companies joining the Open Book Alliance. Pictured is their headquarters in California
Amazon may have the most at stake, given that it's a major book seller and is mining the Kindle for even more sales.
Google plans to offer free access to some books through its search engine and sell others as part of a registry that will share revenue with authors and publishers if the class-action settlement is approved.
Opponents of the deal believe it will give Google too much pricing power, and have raised concerns about the company's ability to stockpile more personal data about the users of its search engines by tracking what they're reading.
'We see many disadvantages in this settlement,' the Internet Archive's Brantley said.
Others see tremendous benefits.
Amazon, who sell the Kindle e-book reader, may have something to lose from Google's approach
A wide cross-section of libraries, colleges and authors have endorsed Google's book settlement.
Google argues that the settlement will be a boon for consumers, who will have easier access to potentially valuable information now gathering dust in remote library shelves.
And, Google says, authors and publishers will be able to make more money from out-of-print books.
'The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition,' Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said.
'That said, it's ironic that some of these complaints are coming from a company that abandoned its book digitization effort because it lacked "commercial intent".'
Stricker addressed this comment at Microsoft, which abandoned its efforts to make digital book copies to focus on more profitable online opportunities.
Microsoft and Yahoo could be hurt if Google's expanded index of digital books propels even more traffic to its search engine. If that were to happen, Google might process even more search requests than it already does, allowing the company to show more of the text ads alongside search results that generate most of its revenue.
Hoping to siphon advertising away from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo last month announced a planned partnership in search.
The proposal, which still must be approved by the Justice Department, calls for Microsoft to run the search engine on Yahoo's web site in return for 12 percent of the revenue generated by accompanying ad sales.
