Are you a writer or do you hold copyright on written work?

[Hannah Bell]

FYI re the Google Books Settlement

Background

When Google started scanning the contents of entire libraries, including books in copyright without permission of their authors, some author/publisher groups sued Google.

This turned into a class action lawsuit -- on behalf of just about all authors or publishers (or their heirs, etc.). If you had a book published (or publish books, or wrote an "insert" for a book) this could possibly include you. It does not apply to magazines.

The parties agreed to a settlement.

The settlement could impact you even if you never heard about this before. (Class action lawsuits are like that, you get included in the class without necessarily knowing it. In this case I gather part of the dispute was that Google said it was too hard to locate the correct rightsholders in the first place.)

http://critters.org/googlebooks.ht


on edit: i'd bet this will wind up being another case of stealing the commons: google scans the books, most long past their original copyrights, then at some point claims total rights to them, charges you to view or anyone else to reprint.

[ContinentalOp]

1. It seems like Google lucked out on this one.

I don't know much about class actions but it seems that this is bad for writers. Doesn't a class action mean that all writers essentially give up any further claims against Google for some paltry settlement fee?

[Hannah Bell]

2. yes, i'm guessing. not only that, but i think they can claim rights & at some point

start charging to access or reprint. "stealing the commons"

i prefer *real* libraries.

[anigbrowl]

11. No, they can't.

you can't assert rights over material that's already in the public domain. Authors who are unhappy with this settlement can opt out of the class, though in my own case I see little point in doing so. You may be interested to know that the Internet Archive has filed a motion to make itself party to the case.

[islandgirl808]

3. i wonder if google

is trying to take over the world...

:tinfoilhat:

[McCamy Taylor]

4. I prefer online myself. Saves the trees. Also easier to edit later.

[pnwmom]

5. Thanks. Do you know if this opting in or out

is just for works you've already published, or will it affect works you publish in the future, too?

[Hannah Bell]

8. i think it's just about the books they scanned & put on the web in "google books" without checking

copyright.

[pnwmom]

6. delete (dupe)

[kaygore]

7. Thank you! I just made a claim!!!!

[Hardrada]

9. Many thanks. I made 5 claims and have more to go.

Good to know this.

[Hardrada]

10. Duplicate. Deleted.

[Hannah Bell]

12. kick