Parties agree to settle Google Book Search litigation

Google, Inc., the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers announced on October 28, 2008, that they’ve agreed to settle lawsuits in which the copyright owners alleged Google’s Book Search project infringed their copyrights.

Under the terms of the proposed Settlement Agreement, Google will pay a total of $125 million, in part to establish a centralized royalty colletion ogranization and to compensate authors of scanned books.  The parties also agree that ongoing royalties will be paid for institutional subscriptions to Google Book Search, for paid online access to books through Google, and for printouts made at participating public libraries.  A Book Rights Registry under the control of authors and publishers also will be established to monitor the use of registered works and for centralized collection of royalties.