Target: Google: antitrust run amok.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Citings - Brief article

IN A NOVEMBER 2007 speech at the headquarters of Google, Barack Obama said he wanted to empower innovative, entrepreneurial geeks so "the next Google has a shot." A few months into Obama's presidency, Christine Varney, the top antitrust enforcer at the Justice Department, has made it clear that she shares the boss's interest in Google. Only her approach may be less than benign.

In a May speech at the Center for American Progress, Varney declared that "vigorous antitrust enforcement must play a significant role in the government's response to economic downturn." Since then, she has opened an investigation into Google's 2008 settlement with authors and publishers over potential copyright violations by the company's book scanning project. Given Google's already significant lead in the book digitization race, the Justice Department worries that the...