The settlement has yet to be approved by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, but would put an end to two class action suits challenging the Google Book Search website, which aimed to "digitize, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner", according to a statement by the Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers.
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totalling $125 million, in part to create a not-for-profit Book Rights Registry, which will be used to distribute payments to authors for online use of their books, as well as to "locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project".
The money will also be used to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers whose works have been used on the site, as well as to cover legal fees.
The agreement will significantly expand the scope of the Google Book Search, allowing the company to include full texts on in-copyright books, which will be accessible for a fee.
In a statement, Google said: "[We] will be working closely with these industry partners to bring even more of the world's books online. Together we'll accomplish far more than any of us could have individually, to the enduring benefit of authors, publishers, researchers and readers alike."
Carole Handler of Wildman Harrold said that avoiding a court decision in the cases was in the best interests of all parties: "The critical issue in this case was whether Google's making a single copy of all published works in five major libraries was in line with the copyright doctrine of fair use," she said. "A decision in the case either way had the potential to create a burdensome precedent either for the publishing industry or for innovative tech pioneers such as Google. A settlement without precedential value likely serves all the parties well."
