[Infowarrior] - Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement

[Richard Forno]

Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement

Copyright Accord Would Make Millions More Books Available Online

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20081027_booksearchagreement.html

NEW YORK, NY (October 28, 2008) – The Authors Guild, the Association  
of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a  
groundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of  
authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to  
millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S.  
from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating  
in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of  
negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book  
authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by  
five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The  
class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the  
Southern District of New York.

The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance  
the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in  
digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works  
through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of  
books searchable via the Web. The agreement acknowledges the rights  
and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for  
them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and  
enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.

If approved by the court, the agreement would provide:

     * More Access to Out-of-Print Books – Generating greater exposure  
for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of- 
print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and  
preview them online;
     * Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books – Building off  
publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the  
electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users  
the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
     * Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online –  
Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other  
organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections  
from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
     * Free Access From U.S. Libraries – Providing free, full-text,  
online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated  
computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
     * Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access  
to Their Works – Distributing payments earned from online access  
provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may  
be established by other providers, through a newly created  
independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate  
rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information,  
and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or  
exclusion from the project.

Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million.  
The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to  
resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal  
fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a  
class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and  
certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major  
publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The  
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP); Pearson Education, Inc. and  
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO);  
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb); and Simon & Schuster,  
Inc. part of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). These lawsuits  
challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search and show snippets of in- 
copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the  
explicit permission of the copyright owner.

Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the  
Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional  
subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue  
models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been  
digitized.

Libraries at the Universities of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and  
Stanford have provided input into the settlement and expect to  
participate in the project, including by making their collections  
available. Along with a number of other U.S. libraries that currently  
work with Google, their significant efforts to preserve, maintain and  
provide access to books have played a critical role in achieving this  
agreement and, through their anticipated participation, they are  
furthering such efforts while making books even more accessible to  
students, researchers and readers in the U.S. It is expected that  
additional libraries in the U.S. will participate in this project in  
the future.

Google Book Search users in the United States will be able to enjoy  
and purchase the products and services offered under the project.  
Outside the United States, the users’ experience with Google Book  
Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and  
services is authorized by the rightsholder of a book.

“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.”

For more information about this agreement, including information about  
whether you may be a class member, please visit http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders 
. Class members include authors (the Author Sub-Class) and publishers  
(the Publisher Sub-Class), and their heirs and successors, of books  
and other written works protected by U.S. copyright law.

A teleconference for the media will be held today, Tuesday, October  
28, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. To participate, reporters in the U.S.  
should dial 877-340-7913, and reporters internationally should dial  
719-325-4845. Please tell the operator you would like to join the  
“Authors, Publishers and Google” call.

About the Authors Guild

The Authors Guild, representing more than 8,000 authors, is the  
nation's largest and oldest society of published authors and the  
leading writers' advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright  
protection, and free expression. For more information, visit www.authorsguild.org 
.

About the Association of American Publishers

The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing  
industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major  
commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non- 
profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies. AAP  
members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field,  
educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary,  
and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and  
electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual  
property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and  
the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of  
reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.  
For further information, see www.publishers.org.

About Google Inc. and Google Book Search

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people  
around the world with information every day. Google Book Search was  
launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more  
than a million books online. More than 20,000 publishers and 28  
libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their  
books through the service. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley  
with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more  
information, visit www.google.com and books.google.com.

Contacts:

Authors Guild: Matthew Traub (matthew_traub at dkcnews.com) 212-981-5207,  
Joe DePlasco (joe_deplasco at dkcnews.com), 212-981-5125

Association of American Publishers: Judy Platt, jplatt at publishers.org,  
202-220-4551

Google: Megan Lamb, press at google.com, 650-930-3555

The Author Sub-Class and the Authors Guild, Inc. are represented by  
Michael J. Boni and Joanne Zack of Boni & Zack LLC, Bala Cynwyd, PA,  
610-822-0200, www.bonizack.com, bookclaims at bonizack.com.

The Publisher Sub-Class, the Association of American Publishers, Inc.,  
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Pearson Education, Inc., Penguin  
Group (USA) Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Simon & Schuster, Inc.  
are represented by Jeffrey P. Cunard and Bruce P. Keller of Debevoise  
& Plimpton LLP, New York, NY, 212-909-6000, www.debevoise.com, bookclaims at debevoise.com 
.