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November 25, 2008
Settlement Reached in Google's Book Search Project
From the Google Blog:
"This agreement is truly groundbreaking in three ways. First, it will give readers digital access to millions of in-copyright books; second, it will create a new market for authors and publishers to sell their works; and third, it will further the efforts of our library partners to preserve and maintain their collections while making books more accessible to students, readers and academic researchers."
A judge has approved a preliminary settlement of two lawsuits between Google and book authors and publishers that may put up to 20 million out-of-print texts online. The lawsuits disputed Google's claim that it had a right to digitize books (as well as offer excerpts and share digital copies with libraries) against possible copyright violations. The Associated Press reported that New York District Judge John Sprizzo has granted preliminary approval to the deal and has scheduled a hearing for June 11, 2009. The lawsuits exposed what appeared to be gray areas of copyright law in the digital age, and the settlement didn't determine whether Google is allowed to scan books without authorization under existing copyright law but has already scanned about 7 million books and may end up digitizing up to 20 million. The settlement was announced by Google and the publishing industry in October, but final court approval is still needed.
The settlement calls for Google to pay $125 million to resolve the claims by authors and publishers. The money would also set up a Book Rights Registry to locate rights holders, determine whether they want to allow their works to be put online, and also to make payments as necessary. It will also maintain a database of books (out of print and copyright protected books) which will continue to be scanned. Since all of these books would be scanned, publishers will have the option of activating a button for readers to download a copy of the book, however, Google will get a sizable chunk of revenues from subscriptions and ad revenues, 37 percent of this future revenue and publishers and authors would share the rest.
Publishers and authors will get new revenue streams for books that didn't have a market because they were already out of print. They will likely have less reason to fundamentally oppose the project since payment will be available for the materials used, but by creating this market, Google has provided a bonus for the rights holders, whose out-of-print works were not likely to get back into "print," with the establishment of a new non-profit Book Rights Registry to manage royalties.
Had the judge ruled against Google, the company could have faced considerable penalties ( $700 to as much as $150,000 per book), but, (according to Chris Snyder of Wired.com ) it would have had an unsettling effect on a program whose "purpose is not to make any money per se but to preserve the knowledge in libraries the world over, and make it more widely available." It is an ambitious program to create a global digital library where universities and institutions can buy a subscription service for unlimited viewing of the entire collection. The catalog will also be available via terminals at U.S public libraries for students and researchers to view for free. Rob Hof of BusinessWeek explains the benefits of the Book Search Program as a bonus for readers and other people who are interested in works that are not easily to obtain. "As a book lover, what I find the coolest thing about the deal is that eventually, I'll be able to visit most any library and, using at least one terminal that will be set up at each library, view digital versions of these books for free (though I'll have to pay to print out pages). It's nice that all the sides managed to agree on something that is demonstrably a good thing for all of us."
--laura
Posted by colldev at November 25, 2008 01:51 PM