Google Reaches Settlement with Book Publishers in Copyright Infringement Case

Google has reached a settlement with several major American publishing companies, including but not limited to McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education and Penguin, John Wiley & Sons and Simon & Schuster  in a copyright infringement case challenging Google's decision to scan the book collections of many major universities.  The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the settlement affirms the rights of copyright owners, who will now have the right to decide whether or not their books are scanned by Google.  According to the Los Angeles Times,  up to 20% of the content of any book included in the project will be viewable  on the Internet.  All other  terms of the agreement are confidential.  Attached is a  copy of the press release issued by The Association of American Publishers.

The Authors Guild has also been involved with litigation against Google over the same issue, and the terms of that settlement may shed some light onto what might have been agreed to in the new settlement.  A copy of original settlement agreement reached in that case is posted at the Author's Guild website, as well as  a full description of the litigation history.  The current amended settlement terms from 2010 in that case are posted here, which as in the new decision, allowed for the removal of books from the scanning project but also provided revenue sharing terms for sales made by Google on the scanned content to third parties.