Publishers Settle Long-Running Lawsuit Over Google's Book-Scanning Project - Publishing - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"After a seven-year legal battle, American publishers and Google have come to terms over the company's ambitious book-digitizing project. A settlement of the publishers' copyright-infringement lawsuit, announced on Thursday by the Association of American Publishers and Google, 'will provide access to publishers' in-copyright books and journals digitized by Google for its Google Library Project,' according to the groups' statement, and 'acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders...'  Under the settlement, American publishers can now opt to remove their copyrighted books and journals from Google's library project or choose to make them available for use and sale. Beyond that, the statement offered few details, not revealing what commercial terms Google and the publishers have reached.  'It's now clear that we can choose to make our works available or remove them from the project,' Tom Allen, president of the publishers' association, said in an interview. 'We think this clarifies a lot.' Under the deal, publishers that do not remove their copyrighted material from the project can get a digital copy to use.  Tom Turvey, Google's director of strategic partnerships, said the agreement would expand the market for e-books. A publisher with a copyrighted work willl be able 'to come forward and put that book into both display and retail uses within our program,' Mr. Turvey said ...  Both Mr. Turvey and Mr. Allen emphasized the pragmatic nature of the deal. 'The e-book world has changed, and it made more sense to reach an accommodation,' Mr. Allen said, noting that the parties had 'agreed to disagree' on some points, including fair use... The settlement announced on Thursday does not affect the authors' case. 'The publishers' private settlement, whatever its terms, does not resolve the authors' copyright-infringement claims against Google,' Paul Aiken, the guild's executive director, said in a written statement. 'Google continues to profit from its use of millions of copyright-protected books without regard to authors' rights, and our class-action lawsuit on behalf of U.S. authors continues...'   First reactions from Google's library partners were cautiously favorable. 'To the extent that Google will get the books from libraries for publisher scanning, it means libraries will have more digitized books for lawful uses (e.g., supporting users with print disabilities) and for preservation,' said John Wilkin, executive director of the HathiTrust digital repository..."