[kwlug-disc] Google book deal

[Bob Jonkman]

Local author and writer Laurel L. Russwurm suggests that Canadian 
authors opt out of the Google Book Scan settlement. 

The issue is that Google will be using scans of books for commercial 
purposes, and paying one blanket settlement to the American Author's 
Guild.  Authors and copyright holders will not be able to negotiate 
their own terms for this commercial use of their works.

This will affect authors in the USA, Canada and Australia.   New 
Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and India have already opted out of this, 
preferring to deal with Google through their own country's author 
collectives rather than the American Author's Guild.

More info at 
http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/google-book-search-opt-out-letter-writers/ 
and 
http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/canadian-writers-artists-say-no-to-gbs-settlement/

The deadline for opting out is 28 January, and the final decision will 
be handed down on 18 February..

--Bob.


Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>         http://sobac.com/sobac/
SOBAC Microcomputer Services              Voice: +1-519-669-0388
6 James Street, Elmira ON  Canada  N3B 1L5  Cel: +1-519-635-9413
Software   ---   Office & Business Automation   ---   Consulting




Paul Nijjar wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 05:42:24PM -0500, Lori Paniak wrote:
>   
>> Does anyone know the details of Google's foray into book digitization?
>> Taking control from "those who write it" doesn't sound very
>> FLOS-friendly.  Or is this last-minute posturing by certain writers for a bigger slice of pie? 
>>
>> http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/01/23/leguin-petition-google.html
>>     
>
> Here are a couple more links that help illustrate the issue: 
>
> This guy is against the settlement, but illustrates the conflict
> pretty well. "Orphan" copyright holders get five years to come forward
> and collect fees before those fees disappear. The author below says
> that the Google scanning is opt-out, not opt-in, which is the problem: 
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-brantley/google-books-and-the-high_b_342318.html
>
> Cory Doctorow is against the Author's Guild lawsuit because it is a
> class-action lawsuit, but he approves of Google indexing book results
> (which is not exactly the same as what is going on, as far as I can
> tell): 
>
> http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/17/google-book-search-s-1.html
>
> - Paul
>
>
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