Last month Google announced that it had settled the lawsuits brought by the Author’s Guild and the Association of American Publishers over its book-scanning project. A U.S. District Judge has given preliminary approval of the settlement which is now scheduled for a hearing next June.
The lawsuits claimed that Google’s mass digitization of works in major U.S. research libraries infringed upon the copyrights of authors and publishers. Terms of the settlement include payment of $125-million by Google to set up a Books Rights Registry, pay authors and publishers for scanning of any copyrighted work, and provide for legal costs. The settlement would apply to works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office and scanned by Google before January 5, 2009. Google plans to continue scanning books in the public domain and copyrighted out-of-print books. The Registry will be run by representatives of authors and publishers and will make payments to rightsholders.
The deal also provides rules regarding how much of the full-text Google can allow users to see. Users at U.S. public and university libraries will be able to freely search and preview portions of works online. In many cases, individual users will be able to purchase online full-text access. Institutions will be offered a subscription service to allow their users access to the complete text. Details regarding the prices for these services are not yet available.
The 200+ page settlement is complex and generating reaction and comments from copyright experts, librarians, publishers and scholarly groups. But, if approved, the deal could potentially make many more out-of-print works available to U.S. readers while benefiting the rightsholders through compensation.
Related Links:
Complete Settlement with Attachments
Joint Public FAQ
Chronicle of Higher Education Article, 10/29/2008
A Guide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement
Peter Suber’s Open Access News