Microsoft and Yahoo joined the opposition against Google Books

Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo are planning to join the coalition that opposes the agreement signed by Google with the representatives of authors and publishers in United States and that would give control of the Internet giant to sell millions of copies of digital books.

Google's rivals and add to what has come to call the Alliance for Open Book, a coalition that brings together those groups and associations who see the Google agreement a threat to market competitiveness.
"The agreement has huge implications for long-term competitiveness and people are starting to realize now," said Gary Reback, one of the creators of this coalition along with the Internet Archive. Reback and assisted in the antitrust case against Microsoft in the nineties, and now asserts that the three aforementioned heavyweights are ready to join the cause.

According to The New York Times, both Microsoft and Yahoo have confirmed their participation, and although Amazon has refused to comment on it, its chief executive, Jeffrey Bezos, has already stated its position prior to the critical line of Google.

A problematic
The agreement, which is being reviewed by the Justice Department to avoid violating any antitrust rule, conditions that raise, to get approval from U.S. justice, would put Google in a privileged place in the race for the digitization of knowledge humans.
The agreement, signed in October by Google with the largest groups representing authors and publishers in the U.S. Authors Guild andAssociation of American Publishers (AAP), states that Google will pay$ 125 million (100 million euros) Offenses covered by copyright which has committed to date to scan books.
It also gives authors and publishers 63% of future profits generated by sales of digital books, while Google would keep 37%, according to The Guardian.

"The agreement would allow the public to familiarize themselves and understand that books are not printed or not available," said Allan Adler of AAP. Although sued Google in 2005 when the software giant unveiled its project, Adler is now convinced that the agreement will be good for all, as both publishers and authors have the right to decide whether to participate or not.