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MAIN NEWS HEADLINES November 27 - December 4, 2008 Edition
Author Outraged
Over Google
Settlement
Opinion
Authorlink News/11/27/08—In an ongoing discussion this week about Google's
$125 million settlement with the Association of American Publishers and Authors
Guild, Authorlink received this statement from author Frances Grimble, published
with her permission in its entirety. We invite other authors to leave comments
at www.authorlink.blogger.com
. For background on the settlement click EXPERTS
EXPLAIN GOOGLE SETTLEMENT IN GREATER DETAIL. An audio interview with the
chair of the European Booksellers Federation will appear next week on Authorlink.
Grimble's Comments:
"It is outrageous that the Author's Guild, after suing Google for using
'snippets' of books in a book search engine, has cut a deal/contract with Google
for a far, far broader set of rights allowing Google to sell those works entire.
And in multiple ways: As parts of packages sold to libraries, as e-books to
consumers, as print-on demand books, and as 'anthologies' Google puts together
from parts of books. Given the years it takes to write a book and the tens of
thousands of dollars it takes to produce one, the offered compensation of $60
per copyright violation is pitiful. And not even guaranteed: The total amount
is fixed, but what each copyright holder gets depends on how many come forward
to place a claim.
It is outrageous that Google and the Author's Guild are now applying this private
deal/contract to every copyright holder in the US, and in every country that
signed the Berne agreement. There is no way they will all find out about the
Settlement before the May 2009 opt-out deadline—if ever.
Google's website about the Library project is still full of reassurances that
they are only copying public-domain books published before 1922. Is there any
reason to believe Google will abide by opt-outs, now that they've flagrantly
violated US and international copyright law and lied about it?
The terms of the Settlement are outrageous. They enable Google to seize control
of all books that are out of print for only one year, and Google defines "out-of-print."
Furthermore, the Settlement allows Google to declare print-on-demand books 'out
of print' by criteria not specified in the Settlement.
I strongly suspect that authors who think the Settlement will be a nice little
revenue stream, will find that 'little is the operative word. If their books
did not sell when marketed in a lukewarm way by their publishers, and when they
were only competing with books currently in print, how well will they sell when
also competing with hundreds of thousands of out-of-print books and when they
are not actively marketed at all? Self-publishers, people who went into business
to have control over the publication process, will soon find that Google is
now their publisher.
The financial terms are the least important part of the Settlement. The important
part is that the Settlement is based on a massive violation of copyright law.
Google could have set up a similar distribution system and invited rights holders
to voluntarily participate. However, in its eagerness to control the publishing
industry, Google merely seized hundreds of thousands of books, and is now offering
their rights holders a contract drawn up together with an organization that
the vast majority of rights holders do not even belong to."
