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Google Settles Authors Guild Litigation - Updated

By Pamela Jones et al.

Google has reached a settlement in the litigation over its Google Books feature. The settlement is complex, but on a quick look, it seems a bit like radio paying into a copyright clearinghouse to be able to play music. It has agreed to sell books and then pay 70% of revenues to authors via a "Books Rights Registry" being established; and Google also will pay the Registry 70% of net advertising revenues.

It's a good arrangement for Google and for the authors. For fair use, I'd call it a loss. Nevertheless, Google Books is still awesome. It hasn't been officially approved yet by the court, but it's reasonable to expect it will be. The parties will each call it a win, of course. Google:

Today we're delighted to announce that we've settled that lawsuit and will be working closely with these industry partners to bring even more of the world's books online. Together we'll accomplish far more than any of us could have individually, to the enduring benefit of authors, publishers, researchers and readers alike.

You can read the settlement in full. Here's the proposed Order [PDF], which one can opt out of, as it explains, or object to if you are in the settlement class. Here's the money part [PDF], who gets what. Google can continue Book Search, but books commercially available are in a "No Display" category. In addition, any author can opt out totally. We will have access to more books online now, according to Google's explanation.

Full post as published by Groklaw on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).