Google Books Settlement Delay?

["Okerson, Ann" <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/04/google-agrees-to-books-settlement-de=
lay/

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Google Agrees to Books Settlement Delay
By Ryan Singel
April 27, 2009  |
3:17 pm  |
Categories: Google

Google Books lets users search and read portions of millions of
books.

Google and the Authors Guild are agreeing to let the world's
authors and publishers have another at least two more months to
contemplate - and possibly coordinate opposition to the looming
settlement that gives the search-and-advertising giant a de facto
monopoly to create the world's digital library, according to
documents filed in the case on Friday.

A small coalition of copyright holders, including folk singer
Arlo Guthrie, John Steinbeck's heirs and sci-fi god Philip K.
Dick's trust, asked a federal court judge Friday to give all book
authors another four months to comprehend and respond to the
334-page settlement proposed last October after the Author's
Guild sued Google for massive copyright violations in its Google
Book Search product. Google's Book Search lets people search and
read portions of Philip K. Dick's books, and millions of others,
online.

The group calls the settlement 'unprecedented' in scope and say
they need more time to make a "decision about perpetual digital
rights."

"For authors who do not opt out, the settlement if approved would
impose a complex scheme for the wholesale allocation of rights
and remedies, and compensation for exploitation of those rights,
in the digital world," the group's lawyers wrote. "And it would
cement that scheme in perpetuity in an area of commerce that has
seen explosive growth in just the last five years, and that may
well prove to be the most important and valuable channel for the
distribution and exploitation of creative works."

The deadline for rights holders to opt out of the settlement or
to contest it is May 5.

Given what's happened to newspapers' business models, Google's
dominance in search, and the growing popularity of the Kindle and
the iPhone for reading books, the group is wise to be cautious.
And they are part of a growing cadre of academics, non-profits,
universities, authors and competitors, who are finding common
cause in opposition to the settlement, which will cost Google
$135 million in lawyers fees and royalty payments.

The Authors Guild, which represents some 8,000 authors, brought
the class-action suit in 2005, arguing Google had no right to
digitize and display books without express consent. Google had
paid to scan more than 7 million books from university libraries,
and if found liable, could have faced immense fines.

Google and the Authors Guild quickly countered, in a joint Friday
fax to U.S. district court judge Denny Chin, that an extension of
two months was more appropriate. They suggest moving both the
opt-out date and the hearing for final approval to July 6 and
sometime after August 20, respectively.

The two parties came to an agreement in October 2008 that would
let Google scan, index, and display nearly all U.S. copyrighted
books in exchange for a share of ad revenues. Under the terms of
the complicated agreement, Google would be allowed to show
portions of books of both in-print and out-of-print books and
share ad revenue with the author or publishers. Millions of
copyrighted, but out-of-print books will become available for
U.S. readers to search, preview and buy online.

Users can also see 20 percent of copyright-protected books that
are in print, rather than the small snippets now available.

A new non-profit called the Book Rights Registry will administer
the royalties and negotiate rates, much as ASCAP does for music
rights holders.

Since the class action suit applies to every author and publisher
holding U.S. copyrights - unless they opt out - Google gains
legal immunity to build the world's most comprehensive library.
It also gets a monopoly. Microsoft and Yahoo both abandoned their
book-digitization projects. If they wanted to win a similar
agreement, they would need to restart the project, get sued by an
amenable plaintiff and repeat this process on their own.

Judge Chin of the Southern District of New York has yet to to
rule on granting a delay, but is unlikely not to extend the
deadline by at least two months.

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