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Settlement Between AAP, The Authors Guild, and Google Reinforces Strength of Copyright Laws in the Digital Age

November 5, 2008—When Google first announced its plans to scan all of the books from major libraries and include them in a database, authors and publishers immediately protested copyright infringement; the Authors Guild, book authors, and five publishers who represented AAP filed separate lawsuits. After two years the parties have reached a settlement, and while there is no direct impact on the educational publishing industry in the short term, the overall message of the agreement is that even as technologies change, the basic rights of publishers and authors to distribute their works remains intact.

Still subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the settlement has five key components to be included as part of Google Book Search.

• More Access to Out-of-Print Books -- Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
   
• Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books -- Building off publishers' and authors' current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
   
• Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online -- Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world's most renowned libraries;
   
• Free Access From U.S. Libraries -- Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
   
• Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works -- Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.

"This historic settlement is a win for everyone," said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. "From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rights holder."

As school publishing moves to digital formats, protections will be needed. The model provided by this settlement is one example of how publishers and distributors can work together to take advantage of technology without compromising copyright.

For more information

"AAP, Authors Guild, Google Announce Groundbreaking Settlement over Google Book Search Library Project"
AAP

"Authors Guild v. Google Settlement Resources Page"
The Authors Guild

"The Future of Google Book Search"
Google Book Search

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