guild

英 [gɪld] 美[ɡɪld]

In 2005, the Authors Guild of America, together with a group of US publishers, launched a class action suit (集团诉讼) against Google that, after more than two years of negotiation, ended with an announcement last October that Google and the claimants had reached an out-of-court settlement.

The other reason why costs are so high is the restrictive guild-like ownership structure of the business.