As I blogged a few days ago, the revised settlement between Google and authors in the United States continues to move forward. Now I see that Judge Denny Chin has set February 18, 2010 for the next hearing. Chin granted preliminary approval to the settlement. The opposition claims the approval is procedural only – and is not a sign of what will actually come down in February. Groups can also lodge objections to the class action settlement with his Southern District of New York Court until January 28, 2010. The U.S. Justice Department has until February 4, 2010 to have their thoughts on the matter heard.
Google, the authors and the publishers submitted a revised settlement to Judge Chin last week seeking to address the copyright and anti-trust concerns raised by the Justice Department and others to the initial agreement. Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers reached the initial settlement agreement last year to a copyright infringement suit they filed against Google in 2005.
THE REVISED SETTLEMENT
Under the Revised settlement, Google has agreed to pay 125 million dollars to resolve outstanding claims and establish an independent “Book Rights Registry,” which would provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books. The revised agreement narrowed the definition of the books covered under the settlement to those registered with the US Copyright Office by January 5, 2009 or published in the United States, Australia, Britain, and Canada. The revised settlement also deals with out-of-print books (orphan works) whose copyright holders cannot be located. An independent body will attempt to locate those copyright holders and see to their interests.
EUROPEAN BOOKS
European countries are not covered by the revised agreement, so don’t expect to see a lot of foreign language books from Google in the near future.
CHINESE VOLUMES
Yesterday, Google agreed to give a list of Chinese books it has digitized to the Chinese government, but it refuses to admit having broken Chinese copyright laws. In China, the copyright term is the lifetime of the author, plus 50 years after that person’s death. The China Written Works Copyright Society claims Google has scanned 18,000 books by 570 Chinese authors without permission. CWWCS wanted Google representative to formally apolegize for the scanning done thus far. However, Google held firm, and announced it will shift the Asia Pacific head office of Google Books from Singapore to Beijing. More talks between CWWCS and Google China are scheduled for next month. President Obama noted Google’s success during a speech while in China, pointing out how an open and unfettered Internet can be very positive.
For more information, see: Google Books Hearing Set for February 18 in the November 21, 2009 edition of The Independent.
Google pledges only booklist in copyright row in the November 21, 2009 China.org.cn
Obama’s China visit enboldens Google to resist copyright theft charge in the November 21, 2009 edition of The Times of India.
