USA: Google Book Search Settlement
Google and The
Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers said that they have
settled a book scanning lawsuit for $125 million. The
deal, which still needs approval from a federal court in New York, would
clear the way for the company to provide easier online access to
millions of copyrighted books.
Google began
scanning and uploading books four years ago. However, unlike other countries
where it only scanned books fallen out of copyright, in the USA it scanned
books that were still copyright protected and made them available through
its book search program - enraging publishers and authors. Three years ago,
the Authors Guild and others filed a class action lawsuit against Google
Book Search. As part of the agreement Google will compensate them at a
minimum of $60 per work, costing it up to $90m of the $125m deal.
Google:
With this
agreement, in-copyright, out-of-print books will now be available for
readers in the U.S. to search, preview and buy online — something that was
simply unavailable to date. Most of these books are difficult, if not
impossible, to find. They are not sold through bookstores or held on most
library shelves, yet they make up the vast majority of books in existence.
Today, Google only shows snippets of text from the books where we don’t have
copyright holder permission. This agreement enables people to preview up to
20% of the book.
What makes
this settlement so powerful is that in addition to being able to find and
preview books more easily, users will also be able to read them. And when
people read them, authors and publishers of in-copyright works will be
compensated. If a reader in the U.S. finds an in-copyright book through
Google Book Search, he or she will be able to pay to see the entire book
online. Also, academic, library, corporate and government organizations will
be able to purchase institutional subscriptions to make these books
available to their members. For out-of-print books that in most cases do not
have a commercial market, this opens a new revenue opportunity that didn’t
exist before.
For details of
the agreement see the
