Google scales back online library plans
Google and the Authors Guild have filed a new version of a proposal to create a massive online library, hoping to avert antitrust and copyright concerns in the US and overseas.
As part of the amended deal, books in the registry would be reduced to those copyrighted in the US or published in the UK, Australia and Canada.
“After hearing feedback from foreign rights-holders, the plaintiffs decided to narrow the class to include only these countries, which share a common legal heritage and similar book industry practices,” Google said.
Under the $125m (£75m) agreement, Google would set up a Book Rights Registry that would compensate publishers and authors whose books were scanned.
The Registry would also locate rights holders of unclaimed, or “orphaned works”.
In the previous proposal, money from works that remained unclaimed after the search would revert back to the registry – a system that had been criticised for creating a conflict of interest – but this will now go to an independent fiduciary rather than the registry.
The 30-page court filing, made late on Friday, also omitted a section that required the book registry, created by the settlement, to give Google at least as good a deal as any competitor.
Google’s plan to put millions of books online has been praised for expanding access to books but has also been criticised on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds.