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WASHINGTON: Google and book publishers and authors have announced a landmark settlement to a copyright dispute that will make millions of books available for purchase online.
Under the terms of agreement, reached on Tuesday after two years of negotiations, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) agreed to drop their lawsuits against Google over its Google Book Search programme.
The settlement calls for Google to pay US$125 million to establish an independent "Book Rights Registry," to resolve outstanding claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees from the lawsuits against Google.
Alleging "massive copyright infringement," authors and book publishers filed a barrage of lawsuits against Google three years ago after it launched Google Book Search, a plan with several major US universities to scan and copy millions of books from their libraries and make them searchable on the Web.
The agreement, which is subject to approval by a US District Court in New York and only applies to holders of US copyrights, provides future revenue to authors and publishers who agree to digitise their books with the Book Rights Registry.
In a joint statement, Google, the publishers and authors said the settlement "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."
Of the US$125 million, US$30 million will go to creating the Book Rights Registry, US$45 million to paying authors and publishers whose books have already been scanned without permission and the remainder to reimburse legal fees.
"Holders worldwide of US 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 digitised," the statement said.
Roy Blount Jr., president of the Authors Guild, which has some 8,000 members, compared the Book Rights Registry to ASCAP, which represents songwriters and musicians and collects royalties on their behalf.
Authors have the option of not signing up their books with the Registry, which will be controlled by a board of authors and publishers.
Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, described the agreement as "groundbreaking."
"It will give readers digital access to millions of in-copyright books," he said, and "create a new market for authors and publishers to sell their works."
More than seven million books are currently available through Google Book Search, and "we believe that ultimately we'll provide access to many times that number," Drummond added.
Google currently only displays snippets from books to which it does not hold the copyright. Under the agreement, readers may now preview up to 20 per cent of an in-copyright book and pay to see the entire book online.
Out-of-copyright works will remain available on Google Book Search for free downloading.
Book prices will be set by the rightsholder or a Google algorithm designed to "maximise revenues for the book."
The settlement sets up a system of institutional subscriptions to Google Book Search for universities and government organisations and provides free access to public libraries.
Advertising will be carried on Web pages displaying the books but not on the books themselves and rightsholders "will receive the majority of the revenue from the advertising on Web pages for specific books," the statement said.
Revenue is to be divided 63-37 between the rightsholder and Google.
The agreement was welcomed by AAP chairman Richard Sarnoff.
"The agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitising world," he said, calling it "an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder."
Google co-founder Sergey Brin also welcomed the settlement.
"While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers," Brin said. "The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips."
- AFP/yb
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