Google Awaits Settlement with Librarians via U.S Justice Department

Almost four years ago, Google Inc. came into a lot of trouble when a majority of librarians, publishers and authors backed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed lawsuits accusing Google of copyright infringement. The whole fuss started when Google announced that it would be running an all new ‘library project‘ for its users. Wherein it scanned numerous books that were owned by universities and libraries across the U.S. and uploaded snippets of their content online.

Soon enough, this search engine behemoth decided to settle the matter and initiated a $125 million settlement agreement with the plaintiffs about 3 years ago. Although, the settlement as of now is under the scrutiny of the Justice Department for any discrepancies they might find, still many are hoping that this deal would come through very soon. As per the agreement, Google would have the rights to millions of books and documents that it would then publish online for viewing and purchase. Google also agreed to assign a regulatory authority known as Book Rights Registry, that will enable the authors and the publishers to register their creations with Google. Furthermore, these entities would be paid as per the online subscriptions, advertisements fees and book sales.

37% of the total revenues will be kept by Google and the rest shall be distributed to the authors and the publishers. The deal would be beneficial for both the authors and the users alike. Firstly, the authors would be able make their work reach to millions of readers all over world and get paid for it. Secondly, users worldwide would have access to millions of book, documents and extremely useful university papers, with a simple click of a mouse.

The settlement deal offers Google to make 20% of a book visible online, free of cost. Furthermore, all the written material for whom there are no known authors or no copyrights, can be absorbed and published by Google without any legal hassles.

According to Corey Williams (Associate Director, Office of Government Relations);