Re: French deal may break deadlock between Google and publishers

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

If I'm reading this announcement correctly, what this arrangement 
does is what the Amended Google Settlement also does, as thus 
summarized from an official document about the AS:

>As Google first announced in September 2009, any book retailer 
>-- Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstores, or other retailers 
>-- will be able to sell consumers online access to the 
>out-of-print books covered by the settlement, including 
>unclaimed books. Rightsholders will still receive 63% of the 
>revenue, while retailers will keep the majority of the remaining 
>37%. This provision has been explicitly written into the revised 
>agreement as a Google obligation.

I do not believe that this means Google will give its digital 
files to Hachette for Hachette to use in any way it pleases. That 
would indeed be a step beyond anything Google has agreed to do in 
the past.

When Penn State Press approached Michigan about granting more use 
rights for the library's Google book files of Press books if 
Michigan would give the Press a copy of the files for its use, 
Michigan agreed but Google nixed the deal. Google has been very 
protective of its files, and I can't imagine that it really has 
backed away from that position.

Does anyone on this list know what the arrangement with Hachette 
indeed entails in this respect?

Sandy Thatcher


>Sandy,
>
>I am no expert on all the ins and outs of Google's various
>programs, but I believe that the Hachette arrangement has a new
>feature: Hachette will receive digital copies of their books,
>which they can exploit in any way they choose.  In effect, G is
>serving as a conversion house, among other things.
>
>Joe Esposito
>
>On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 3:02 PM, Sandy Thatcher
><sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Unless I'm missing something, I don't see what's new about this
>>  kind of arrangement. Way back in 2005 U.S. publishers began
>>  entering into agreements with Google in its Publisher program
>>  to have Google digitize books. The suit arose out of an
>>  unsanctioned arrangement Google struck up with libraries and
>>  Google's challenge to the traditional practice of publishers
>>  opting in to any such arrangement. The deal with Hachette looks
>>  very much like the deals U.S. publishers have been making with
>>  Google for five years now. This may be a "fresh start" for
>>  Hachette, but it isn't for U.S. publishers.
>>
>>  Sandy Thatcher
>>
>>
>>>"A new agreement between Hachette Livre and Google could offer a
>>>way forward in the ongoing dispute between authors, publishers
>>>and the search engine over the digitising of out-of-print books."
> >>
> >>Full text, from the Guardian: http://bit.ly/gkyWd9
> >>
> >>Bernie Sloan