- Behind The Scenes With Warren Buffett
- 'Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What'
- When You And Your Company Face a 'Crisis of Character'
- The Dollar Meltdown: The New Greek Tragedy?
- 'Blood and Business Don't Mix' — A Family Business Survival Guide
- Meet The Leaders of the New Retail Revolution
- Bear Stearns Fund Manager - Before His Day in Court
- Could Going Solo Ruin Your Career?
- If Mickey Mouse Has to Change—What Does That Say About You?
- Your Next Move: Thriving and Managing in Limbo
MOST SHARED
- Wednesday's Economic News Crunch Could Tilt Markets
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- Obama Reiterates Commitment to Boost US-India Ties
- Stifling Anger at Work Can Kill, Survey Finds
- Australia Wheat Exporters Face Challenges: GrainCorp
- Japan Export Rebound Eases Fear of New Recession
- Citi Mortgage Reveals What Treasury Won't
- S&P to Hit 1,200 by Year-End: Chief Investor
- Amended Berkshire Hathaway Filing Indicates No Secret Stock Stakes at End of Q3
- Facebook's Biggest-Ever Holiday Shopping Season
- Facebook's New Dual Class Structure - Slow Steps to an IPO
- 5 Big Bank Stocks Investors Should Consider: Strategists
- Gambling Drunk, Texting to Live And America's On Sale - Your Emails
- Nov. 24: Unusual Volume Leaders
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- AIG Board OKs CEO Pay; Benmosche Agrees to Stay
- Obama Reiterates Commitment to Boost US-India Ties
- FDIC's Bair Cautions on Risks in Bank Break-Up Plan
- Wednesday's Economic News Crunch Could Tilt Markets
- Call Me Crazy: Confessions of a Black Friday Shopper
- 'Very Blah' Christmas Is Coming for UK Retailers
- US Firms Hit by Payroll Taxes at Exactly the Wrong Time
- Citi Mortgage Reveals Something the US Treasury Won't
- In Time for Holidays: More Gloom and Doom on Economy
RSS FEED
Bullish On Books
Text Size 
 |
The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google[GOOG
Loading...
()
] today announced a groundbreaking settlement agreement that will make millions of books available online.
The agreement—if approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NY will benefit readers and researchers, and help authors and publishers distribute their content in digital form by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search.
According to this morning’s release by AAP, “The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.”
“This historic settlement is a win for everyone,” said Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers. “From our perspective, the agreement creates an innovative framework for the use of copyrighted material in a rapidly digitizing world, serves readers by enabling broader access to a huge trove of hard-to-find books, and benefits the publishing community by establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rightsholder.”
“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor,” said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips.”
If approved, the agreement will provide:
- More Access to Out-of-Print Books
- Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books
- Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books
- OnlineFree Access From U.S. Libraries
- Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees.
My colleague, Jim Goldman who covers all things Google for CNBC. Check out his blog post on this story: Google's Copyright Case: Settlement Is A Wake Up Call.
Questions, comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes