Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Authors Guild v. Google Lawsuit Settled

Some of you may know that the Authors Guild filed a class-action suit against Google in September 2005 after Google started scanning millions of books and offering the texts online. Some of the works were in the public domain, but many were still under copyright protection. (Google did not seek to secure reprint or electronic-distribution permissions.)

Today, the two sides have announced a settlement deal ($125 million) that will pay a small fee (up to $60 for an individual book) to publishers and authors whose copyrighted works have been scanned without permission. The possibility of future payments exists too.

Today's email from AG president Roy Blount Jr. says "Far more interesting for most of us — and the ambitious part of our proposal — is the prospect for future revenues. Rightsholders will receive a share of revenues from institutional subscriptions to the collection of books made available through Google Book Search under the settlement, as well as from sales of online consumer access to the books. They will also be paid for printouts at public libraries, as well as for other uses."

The settlement also means that readers can still get online access to gazillions of printed works — so this settlement is a win-win for everyone.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

New LJ Column: Teen Reads

I know I've been AWOL for a bit, but that can't be helped. (Well, I suppose it could be helped if pushing the PUBLISH POST button triggered a paycheck. But that's not how this blog rolls. Dang!)

Popping in today to share a new column called "35 Going on 13: Teen Books for Adults" hosted at the Library Journal site and written by librarian Angelina Benedetti (from somewhere in my local library system).

I like the premise because not only are the lines between YA and adult fiction getting blurrier and blurrier, but — as Benedetti points out — some adult readers simply enjoy indulging in a good teen read.