Re: Authors, publishers, settle suit with Google

["Harper, Georgia K" <gharper@austin.utexas.edu>]

I understand it to apply to any US copyright interest, including 
those owned by foreign authors and publishers by virtue of the 
GATT. Thus, a foreign author's US copyright interest in a book 
that was published in Brazil, but not subsequently published here 
within 30 days of foreign publication (i.e., a book in University 
of Texas' Benson Latin American Collection, which Google is 
digitizing), can be seen here in the default 20% view mode, can 
be purchased, etc. and the moneys go to Google and the Registry, 
and the Registry money goes to the foreign author, if he/she 
registers with the Registry to claim it. The notice that is going 
out to call authors to come forward (assuming court approval) is 
going out all over the world because all authors/publishers 
(copyright owners) of foreign works have US copyright interests 
in their works that were still protected in the publication 
country in 1996 for the full term of a comparable US copyright, 
in the US.

Ironically, that same Brazilian author won't see his/her work in 
anything more than snippet view in Brazil, nor will the book be 
for sale there, until Google has negotiated a deal with the 
Brazilian collective rights organization and the Brazilian 
government (or some such arrangement). We agonized over this 
discrepancy in deciding whether to support the deal, as so much 
of our readership for the Benson Collection is foreign. But in 
the end, the potential for creating a more workable path out of 
obscurity for orphan works was compelling.

Extremely complicated deal. Only a first little (well not so 
little) step down a very interesting and very long path.

Georgia Harper


On 11/3/08 5:36 PM, "Lesley Harris" <lesleyeharris@comcast.net> wrote:

The settlement was in response to 2 law suits against Google in
2005, by the Authors Guild and the American Association of
Publishers -- so the settlement can only apply to the law suits
and these U.S. groups.

Lesley Ellen Harris
lesley @ copyrightlaws.com
www.copyrightanswers.blogspot.com