Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Google Settles Book-Scan Lawsuit, Everybody Wins

Google Settles Book-Scan Lawsuit, Everybody Wins. Chris Snyder. October 28, 2008.

Google settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $125 million to authors and publishers. In addition, out of print, copyright protected books will still be scanned and publishers have the option to activate a “Buy Now” button so readers can download a copy of the book. Google will take a 37 percent share of the profits, plus an administrative fee of 10 to 20 percent, and the remaining goes to authors and publishers. This creates a for out-of-print works that were not likely to get back into "print" any other way, and establishes a new non-profit Book Rights Registry to manage royalties.

Universities and institutions can buy a subscription service to view the entire collection, and U.S public libraries will have terminals for students and researchers to view the catalog for free.

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