Google Settles With Authors, Publishers Over Copyright Lawsuit

New York, NY (AHN) - U.S. authors and publishers and Google Inc. have settled their legal dispute over copyrights by agreeing to a compensation scheme for books the firm will digitize and publish online.

Google and plaintiffs Authors Guild (AG) and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced Monday the proposed settlement submitted for approval to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Under the proposed deal, the search engine firm will pay authors and publishers $125 million, which will be used to put up a Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees.

In a press release, AAP said U.S. copyrights holders worldwide can register their works with the registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.

The AG and AAP sued Google in September and October 2005, respectively, because the company will violate their intellectual property rights by making available online millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. through its Google Book Search project.

"This historic settlement is a win for everyone," said Richard Sarnoff, AAP chairman, said in the group's website. "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 communityby establishing an attractive commercial model that offers both control and choice to the rights holder."