Google book settlement latest information
3 January 2012
In a ‘Fairness Hearing’ in a US court in March Judge Denny Chin rejected proposals to settle the litigation brought by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Authors Guild against Google in respect of its digitisation of books in US libraries. In addition to US works the settlement (as amended) included UK, Canadian and Australian publications. Judge Chin encouraged the parties to negotiate amendments to the settlement, suggesting a model whereby works were opted in, rather than included by default and then opted-out.
In September Judge Chin adopted a pre-trial schedule that would see the trial begin by 31st July 2012. A trial could yet be avoided if the parties arrive at a further settlement. Reports suggest that the Association of American Publishers (AAP) may be close to settlement terms with Google; the US Authors Guild has yet to report similar progress. On the 22nd December Google filed a motion for dismissal of the complaints against them. The AAP and Authors Guild has until 23rd January to respond.
UK authors should be aware that the formal litigation proceedings now being undertaken by the Authors Guild apply to US works, unless a further settlement is reached, UK works will not be implicated in this process. ALCS will continue to monitor and report on developments and will discuss the implications for UK authors in our regular meetings with other writer’s representative bodies.
September 2011
The Google Book case is reportedly still headed to litigation. Presiding over the case, Judge Denny Chin, at a conference on 15 September, adopted a proposed pre-trial schedule that would have the case ready for 31 July 2012 if followed.
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June 2011
Google, the US Authors Guild and US publishers have been given until 19 July 2011 to alter the orphan works and out of print titles agreement.
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March 2011
Members may recall that a US Court has been reviewing the terms of the Google Books Settlement under which a huge ‘library’ of digitised books would be made available in the U.S. based on agreed terms for payments to authors and publishers.
On 22 March 2011, US Circuit Judge Denny Chin denied the motion for final approval of the Google Book Settlement, concluding that the Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA) is “not fair, adequate, and reasonable”.
Although the Judge referred to various benefits of a ‘universal digital library’, he also raised concerns with the process by which this would be achieved under the current proposals, notably the idea that books may be included in the scheme without the direct consent of the author or publishers.
“The notion that a court-approved settlement agreement can release the copyright interests of individual rights owners who have not voluntarily consented to transfer is a troubling one.”
Picking up on this theme in his concluding remarks, Judge Chin outlined a potential solution to enable the project to go ahead based on a positive assertion by authors and publishers that they wanted their work to be included.
“As the United States and other objectors have noted, many of the concerns raised in the objections would be ameliorated if the ASA (Amended Settlement Agreement) were converted from an “opt-out” settlement to an “opt-in" settlement. I urge the parties to consider revising the ASA accordingly.”
President of the US Authors Guild, Scott Turow, commented “Although this Alexandria of out-of-print books appears lost at the moment, we'll be studying Judge Chin's decision and plan on talking to the publishers and Google with the hope that we can arrive at a settlement within the court’s parameters that makes sense for all parties.”
“Regardless of the outcome of our discussions with publishers and Google, opening up far greater access to out-of-print books through new technologies that create new markets is an idea whose time has come,” said Mr. Turow. “Readers want access to these unavailable works, and authors need every market they can get. There has to be a way to make this happen. It’s a top priority for the Authors Guild.”
The Judge will hold a status conference with parties on the 25th April 2011 and we will report further developments as they occur.