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Google has reached a landmark settlement in a copyright lawsuit launched by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers that could impact the way that copyright law is dealt with online. The deal will see Google exclusively host a platform that will bring millions of books that are currently under copyright to the Internet.

Under the terms of the lawsuit settlement, Google will pay $125 million to establish a Book Rights Registry to settle unresolved claims by authors who have had their copyright violated by Google in the past. Authors of previously indexed works can file with the Book Rights Registry to collect compensation for unauthorized digitalized copies of their work.

The deal will further allow Google the rights to continue to distribute information via the Google Books Search, and will offer American users the ability to directly purchase products and services from the search results page. The Google Books Search user experience for those outside of the United States will remain unchanged, but Google will exclude certain work from search as requested by the copyright holder.

Authors and publishers will receive 63% of revenue generated by Google's electronic book database from the sale of online books and advertising. As part of the $125m, Google will pay $34.5m (£21.5m) to set up the Book Rights Registry, which will collect the money and give it to the copyright owners. Another $45m (£28m) will go to authors and publishers that had their books uploaded without permission. Plaintiffs lawyers will take home $30m (£18.7m).

According to a statement issued Tuesday by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google, the agreement "will 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."

If approved by the court, the agreement would provide:

• More Access to Out-of-Print Books: Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;

• Additional ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books: Building off publishers' and authors' current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;

• Free Access from U.S. Libraries: Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S public and university libraries;

• Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works: Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.

Rightsholders can exclude their Books from some or all of these uses. Rightsholders can also remove their Books altogether from the Books database (if already digitized) or direct Google not to digitize their Books so long as the request is made by no later than April 5, 2011.

As a result of the settlement, Google can now make a book available online for a fee, or show up to 20% of the text at no charge. Universities and libraries can subscribe, gaining access to the entire collection of scanned texts. Google will get 37% of the revenue.

As long as “orphan” works are concerned – if copyright law changes in U.S.A – digital copies will be used according to law.

Links: Search books in Google!
Google Books and Agreement
Google Book Search Copyright Settlement