"Authors Guild" Skims Half of Google Book-Rights Settlement

Miracle Jones writes "A recent memo from the 'Author's Guild' to the writers and publishers that it supposedly represents shows that only $45 million of the $125 million dollar settlement with Google will be paid to writers, and that the most a writer can receive for a book is $300. Many people speculate that Google's monopoly over all of out-of-copyright works will result in a brutal monopoly that will hurt both writers and readers, and that the 'Author's Guild' had no right to make the deal in the first place. How will it all shake down? Should writers be paid at all for their work? Will Google be any good at the publishing racket?"

Comments

Summary and blogspam link laughably incorrect

[elrous0]

This summary is laughably inaccurate, biased, and sensational. This agreement doesn't give Google anything even *like* a "monopoly over all out-of-copyright works." If a work is out-of-copyright Google (or anyone else for that matter) is free to do whatever the hell they want with it. The issue of this case was the right to provide SEARCH RESULTS for COPYRIGHTED books. The Authors Guild was suing Google because they said Google didn't have the right to provide full text search results for copyrighted texts (even if the results page of the search only displayed a couple of sentences from the text). Rather than fight out what was probably a legitimate fair-use case, Google simple paid them off. This case has nothing to do with whether a writer should be "paid for their work." These are just SEARCH RESULTS we're talking about, not full texts.

Full details (minus the blogspam and reactionary hyperbole) are available here.

This isn't about "out of copyright" works

[Animats]

This isn't about "out of copyright" works. It's about works that are still under copyright, but out of print. Google effectively just bought the rights to all out of print books.

Here's the Author's Guild description of the deal. Authors can opt out, but only have until May 9 to do so.

These are the actual terms:

The settlement, if Court-approved, will authorize Google to scan in-copyright Books and Inserts in the United States, and maintain an electronic database of Books. For out-of-print Books and, if permitted by Rightsholders of in-print Books, Google will be able to sell access to individual Books and institutional subscriptions to the database, place advertisements on any page dedicated to a Book, and make other commercial uses of Books. At any time, Rightsholders can change instructions to Google regarding any of those uses. Through a Book Rights Registry ("Registry") established by the settlement, Google will pay Rightsholders 63% of all revenues from these uses.