As part of its ambitious book digitization project, Google has been scanning the archives of several libraries, including the New York Public Library, Stanford University, and Harvard University. In 2005, Google was sued over this project by the Authors Guild and five major publishers: McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons and Simon & Schuster who claimed that Google required their permission to scan books under their control.
On Oct. 28, 2008, the parties announced a settlement in the lawsuit. Google agreed to pay $125 million to create a Book Rights Registry, to be controlled by authors and publishers, as well as to settle past claims by authors and publishers. The settlement and Book Rights Registry purportedly will establish an ongoing revenue-sharing arrangement between the parties for content purchased from Google's book search system. The registry to be created would allow copyright holders to register their works in order to receive royalty payments from sales of the works through Google's service. Presumably, this registry would be similar, at least in concept, to performance rights organizations existing in the music business.
The overall effect of the settlement, if approved by the court, would be to allow millions of additional books still under copyright to become available through Google's service. It would also arrange a new system for copyright holders to monetize their works. At this early stage details are sketchy, at best, but the settlement represents potentially significant event for publishers and authors.
Additional information is available at the official settlement website at this link. The Authors Guild has posted all of the relevant information to the settlement at this link.
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