Authors Guild v. Google Lawsuit

The Google Book Search Library Project lawsuit has been settled.

 

The Authors Guild and American Association of Publishers has settled their class-action suit on behalf of authors and publishers against Google for its Book Search Library Project.

Google has contracted with a number of university and independent libraries to scan books in their collections to created digitized libraries and databases. Google scanned all books in the collections, making public domain works available online to the public and has provided a searchable database of copyrighted books that displayed small portions of text to the searcher. Publishers and authors claimed that Google infringed their copyrights when it scanned works still protected by copyright without permission from the rights holders. (Scanning a book produces a digital file, which is literally a copy.) This created digital reproductions of the work, and, by displaying small snippets, Google then, effectively, displayed the works, thus violating the rights of the authors. Google claimed their activities were allowed under the doctrine of Fair Use.

The proposed settlement affects the legal rights in the United States of authors and publishers throughout the world. Only published written works within copyright are included in this settlement. Although images – including illustrations, graphics and photographs – are also included in the books scanned, this infringement lawsuit covered text only. The Graphic Artists Guild, in conjunction with the American Society of Media Photographers and other groups representing visual creators, will pursue class action retribution on behalf of rights holders of images.

If you hold the copyright to textural works, including graphic novels, and would like more information about the settlement, detailed information about the settlement is available at http://www.googlebooksettlement.com. Please read the full Notice, which has details about the settlement, important terms, the claims process, and key dates. It is available at http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/notice.html. These documents and assistance with the claims process are also available from the Settlement Administrator by telephone – (888) 356-0248 – or by email.

For background information on Google’s Print Library Project, click here.

The following letter discussing this suit was sent to the Authors Guild by Roy Blount. We share it with you here:

We’ve settled the Google suit.

Our letter to members follows... A message from Roy Blount Jr.:

A couple months after I became Authors Guild president in 2006, we met with Google to propose a settlement to our class-action lawsuit. The Guild had sued Google in September 2005, after Google struck deals with major university libraries to scan and copy millions of books in their collections. Many of these were older books in the public domain, but millions of others were still under copyright protection. Nick Taylor, then the president of the Guild, saw Google’s scanning as “a plain and brazen violation of copyright law.” Google countered that its digitizing of these books represented a “fair use” of the material. Our position was: The hell you say. Of such disagreements, lawsuits are made.

Our proposal to Google back in May 2006 was simple: while we don’t approve of your unauthorized scanning of our books and displaying snippets for profit, if you’re willing to do something far more ambitious and useful, and you’re willing to cut authors in for their fair share, then it would be our pleasure to work with you. We’re happy to report that our proposal found a receptive audience at Google and at Association of American Publishers and the several publishing houses that had filed a separate lawsuit in October 2005 against Google. Reaching final agreement turned out to be not so simple, but today, after nearly two and a half years of negotiations, we’re joining with Google and the AAP and those publishers to announce the settlement of Authors Guild v. Google.

The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge before it takes effect, includes money for now and the prospect of money for later. There’ll be at least $45 million for authors and publishers whose in-copyright books and other copyrighted texts have been scanned without permission. If your book was scanned and you own all the rights, you’ll get a small share of this, at least $60, depending on how many rightsholders file claims. Far more interesting for most of us – and the ambitious part of our proposal – is the prospect for future revenues. Rightsholders will receive a share of revenues from institutional subscriptions to the collection of books made available through Google Book Search under the settlement, as well as from sales of online consumer access to the books. They will also be paid for printouts at public libraries, as well as for other uses.

The payments will flow through the Book Rights Registry, a new independent entity that can be thought of as the writers’ equivalent of ASCAP. Much as ASCAP tracks the uses of songs and collects royalties for songwriters and musicians, the Registry will serve the interests of authors and others who own the rights to books appearing online as a result of this settlement. The Registry will be controlled by a board of authors and publishers; as part of the settlement, Google will pay $34.5 million to get the Registry up and running, notify rightsholders of the settlement, and process claims. Readers are also big winners under the settlement of Authors Guild v. Google. Readers will be able to browse from their own computers an enormous collection of books. We hope this will encourage some readers to buy full online access to some of the books. Readers wanting to view books online in their entirety for free need only reacquaint themselves with their participating local public library: every public library building is entitled to a free, view-only license to the collection.

College students working on term papers will be able to point their computers to resources other than Wikipedia, if they’re so inclined: students at subscribing institutions will be able to read and print out any books in the collection.

We expect that millions of out-of-print books (and many in-print books) will be available through Google Book Search to readers, but we don’t know how many, since that depends partly on you. Participating rightsholders can choose to pull their books from this service with reasonable notice at any time and will retain substantial control over Google’s presentation and pricing of their books.

As with any class action, individual class members remain free to opt out of the settlement.

— Roy Blount, President, Authors Guild