Google's ASCAP-for-Books Moves Forward

Ars Technica reports: Yesterday, Judge John Sprizzo of Manhattan approved a lawsuit settlement between Google and book authors and publishers. In what can only be seen as a huge win for both Google and publishers, Google will pay out $125 million into a fund for copyright holders and be granted the right to put millions of out-of-print texts online. The settlement provides a glimpse into the financial terms of a deal that may see the search giant become a significant retailer of out-of-print books.

The lawsuit dates to the launch of Google Print back in 2005, when Google entered the scan-and-publish arena. At the time, its digitizing efforts were described as massive copyright infringement, since the results were made freely available online. The suit attracted the Author's Guild as well as five major publishers: McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster. It eventually reached class action status.

The settlement approved today remains preliminary. A June hearing will determine whether the agreement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. Should it pass that hurdle and become a settled class action suit, Google will be able to operate Google Print without fear of future legal action.

Today's settlement amounts to a relatively small outlay for Google and, at the same time, a huge book deal for everyone else involved. The settlement documents provide hard numbers on who gets what. Under the plan, Google will receive 37% of any future revenue from its Google Print services and authors and publishers will split the remaining 63%.

On the Author's Guild website, guild president Roy Blount Jr writes that payments will flow through a newly established independent Book Rights Registry, which he describes as the writers' equivalent of ASCAP. Google will pay $34.5 million to set up the Registry and pay to contact rights holders about the settlement.

Google's co-founder Sergey Brin called the agreement "a real win-win for us all, 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."

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