Today Google reached an out-of-court settlement in a law suit filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers by agreeing to pay $125 million. The three parties said it would “dramatically expand access” to books in the US, particularly those that are still in–copyright, but are out of print. Of the $125 million, $45 million will go to authors whose books were digitized without their approval, and $34.5 million will go to establish a book rights registry.
As part of the agreement, readers will be able to preview up to 20% of most out-of-print books for free. Readers will also benefit from the expanding of the electronic market for copyrighted books by being able to purchase online access to many in-copyright books.
Through the Book Rights Registry, U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations will be able to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries. Designated computers in U.S. public libraries and university libraries will be able to offer free, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books.
Payments earned from online access provided by Google and, I would assume, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, will be paid to authors who have registered with the not-for-profit Book Rights Registry.
“It’s hard work writing a book, and even harder work getting paid for it,” said Roy Blount Jr., President of the Authors Guild. “As a reader and researcher, I’ll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world’s great libraries. As an author, well, we appreciate payment when people use our work. This deal makes good sense.”
“This historic settlement is a win for everyone,” said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. “From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”
