Authors, Publishers, Google Settle Copyright Case

NEW YORK, NY (October 28, 2008) – The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google today announced a roundbreaking settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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I've posted the rest of the story, including the link to the official settlement page, on Writer's Notebook: http://jockstewart.typepad.com/writers_notebook/2008/10/authors-publishers-and-google-reach-landmark-settlement.html

Malcolm

I received an email from Google about the settlement (I have two books in the Book Search Programme) and they added a link to their blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com:80/2008/10/new-chapter-for-google-book-search.html

I signed up for future e-mails from Google since "The Sun Singer" was scanned in without my permission.

Malcolm

I was just on another site, mostly pro SF writers and this AGENT was saying the authors shouldn't bitch about his because it's so important that the public have access to this work.

It's only important if people remember that authors don't work for free and there's nothing sacred or holy about giving our stuff away. That agent is nuts.

Malcolm

Oh, I agree. But she's also an agressive little bitch. (Go figure) so it's not good to say so.


This brings up something I've always thought was an odd thing about writing.

Writers are generally highly supportive of the whole idea of public libraries. And one way of describing a library is a place where hundreds of people can read a writer's book, while he only gets paid for it once.

I'm also a pro writer who supports libraries, but it has always seemed kind of peculiar. In what other art or trade are the creators expected to be in favor of having the use of their labors given away to the public for free?

Then you get around to a big, rich, powerful monopolistics corporation giving people's work away for free and you gotta say...

Within my small budget, I donated a lot of copies of "The Sun Singer" to libraries. My way of saying that I support them. Yes, it's odd, I suppose, in a way. But I think they increase sales and serve as PR. Plus, I grew up reading a lot of library books and I kind of like the tradition.

Malcolm

Oh, so do I. If everybody had my reading habits, writers would all starve.