Google Strikes Deal With La Martiniere Groupe

"Web giant Google Inc (GOOG) Thursday said it has signed a deal with French publishing house La Martiniere Groupe for the scanning of books no longer on sale but still protected by copyright, in a sign that the group is increasingly finding common ground with publishers....Under the terms of the deal, Google and La Martiniere Groupe will jointly set up a catalog of books to be scanned that are no longer sold by the publisher. La Martiniere Groupe will decide which books Google is allowed to scan. La Martiniere can also dictate which of the scanned books can then be sold on Google's Ebooks platform and two groups will share any revenue generated through a sale. A spokeswoman for Google France said the bulk of the revenue will go to the publisher, declining to provide further detail. Google and La Martiniere in a joint statement also said that the agreement puts an end to the legal action that La Martiniere Groupe launched against Google back in 2006. The terms of the deal with La Martiniere Groupe are similar to the deal reached last year with Hachette Livre, a unit of Lagardere SCA (MMB.FR) and one of Europe's biggest publishers. That deal was seen as setting a precedent for how publishing companies across the continent can make money via the digitalization of books still under their copyright protection but no longer sold in stores...."