Re: Authors, publishers, settle suit with Google

[Jan Szczepanski <jan.szczepanski@ub.gu.se>]

I thought copyright was something legal and not something you can 
buy! Maybe that is the American way but are European libraries or 
any library outside the US part of this deal? Or do we have to 
add an C) to Karl Bridges list?

Jan

Karl Bridges wrote:

> Well, this is good for libraries if A) the licensing costs are
> reasonable and B)they provide MARC data.  I expect many libraries
> would prefer to integrate the books into their catalog and they
> would need that information -- rather than go through Google.
>
> On the legal side, it seems complicated.  In many cases, the
> author's rights are in their long settled estates. Does this
> mean, for example, in order for Google to pay the royalties on
> out of copyright materials that these cases would have to be
> reopened in probate court to determine the disposition of the
> revenues?  Just determining who the heirs are to some long
> deceased author would seem to be a large problem in itself.
>
> Karl Bridges
> University of Vermont