Last October, Google ended up paying a $125 million settlement to the Authors Guild for copyrighted works it had scanned onto its Google Book Search project. The Project seemed like a very great idea, scan every book ever printed so that anyone could view them on the web. Google had scanned over 7 million books before the Author’s Guild said what they were doing was illegal.
Since then the Google has revised their technique and are now offering authors and other copyright holders $60 per scanned book to allow Google to scan their book and add it to their Google Book Search collection. The deal sounds like a terrible one, but there is more to it. Google is only allowed to display snippets in search results, and only 20% of the book will be viewable in preview mode. If a user wants to see the entire book, the user will have the option to buy a digital version of the book. Google has also set up and advertising program on the Google book search results and preview mode. Authors and copyright holders will then receive 63% of all profit that Google has earned on advertising and e-books sold that pertain to the author’s book.
Also worth noting is the settlement is only for the million of out-of-print books that are currently making zero revenues for authors and publishers today. Sounds like a good deal for an author who wants to make some more money off of their book after it has stopped being published and produced.
Since then the Google has revised their technique and are now offering authors and other copyright holders $60 per scanned book to allow Google to scan their book and add it to their Google Book Search collection. The deal sounds like a terrible one, but there is more to it. Google is only allowed to display snippets in search results, and only 20% of the book will be viewable in preview mode. If a user wants to see the entire book, the user will have the option to buy a digital version of the book. Google has also set up and advertising program on the Google book search results and preview mode. Authors and copyright holders will then receive 63% of all profit that Google has earned on advertising and e-books sold that pertain to the author’s book.
Also worth noting is the settlement is only for the million of out-of-print books that are currently making zero revenues for authors and publishers today. Sounds like a good deal for an author who wants to make some more money off of their book after it has stopped being published and produced.
