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Google settlement changes

The federal court overseeing the Google Book Search Copyright Settlement in the United States extended the opt-out deadline in the case from May 5, 2009 to September 4, 2009.

The extended opt-out deadline is the new date by which class members must decide whether to remain in the settlement class and receive the benefits of the settlement, object to the settlement, or opt out of the settlement.

The April 28, 2009,change in the opt-out deadline has caused the final fairness hearing date to be rescheduled, from June 11, 2009 to October 7, 2009.

This is the new date of the hearing for the court to consider whether to grant final approval of the settlement. All other deadlines and key dates in the case remain the same, including May 5, 2009 as the date on or before which a book must have been scanned in order to be entitled to a cash payment.

Online claims-filing and detailed information about the settlement are available online
in 36 languages.

Also this week, the Booksellers Association repeated its warning that the settlement between Google and the US Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers results in Google being "handed a monopoly", with competitors "placed at a considerable disadvantage."

BA chief executive Tim Godfray, in a letter to The Bookseller, said: "This might be an agreement signed by US publishers, US authors and Google, but it will affect almost all of us in the UK book trade."

Under the terms of the settlement UK publishers can claim titles already scanned in by Google, and then ask the search engine to remove access to them.

The settlement will give Google the right to sell content.

One of their applications enables consumers to browse inside books online directly from their own homes or workplaces. Moving from search to buy will be a click away.

Institutions in the US will be able obtain collective licenses to enable them to have easy access to millions of titles.

Under the terms of the settlement, agreed between Google and the Association of American Publishers and US Authors' Guild in October, Google agreed to pay $60 per title for in print books it had already digitised.

However, Godfray said the BA is not one of the 'classes' in the legal action.

“So here we have a case of three organisations in the US making decisions that will affect not only booksellers in the US, but in the UK and other parts of the world. It is difficult not to take the view that Google are being handed a monoploy and competitors will be placed at a considerable disadvantage," he said

So far, Google has scanned in an estimated seven million books and continue to add more to its digital database.

BA letter to The Bookseller

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