A NYT article broke the news that lawyers for the Justice Department have begun discussions with groups that oppose the book deal that Google struck with publishers and authors to place their books on Google’s massive online library. The license agreements, says its opposition, would lend Google the exclusive right to exploit this literature online. According to the article, conversations have begun between the Justice Department and groups such as the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, but the Department has not made up its mind whether to oppose to deal. The deal is the result of a 2005 lawsuit, in which copyright infringement claims were brought against Google. The largest issue is the exclusive right to “orphan books”, whose copyright holders are not known and cannot be found. This is the first tangible evidence of the ordeal being made over orphan works on Capitol Hill in the last few years, in which lobby groups have argued for expanded copyright law measures to cover these works.
Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with 
Trevor M. Blum is a former Associate in the Chicago-based, valuation practice group of Ocean Tomo, LLC., an intellectual property (IP) consultancy. Additionally, he provided instrumental research support to Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., an IP exchange start-up. Trevor holds a B.S. from Indiana University and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on international business and finance. His interests also include entrepreneurship, economics, and informational visualization. He enjoys running and cycling in his free time. Trevor seeks to bring a transnational business perspective to the blog. 
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