Google Settles French Scanning Lawsuits; Creates Commercial Model for Out-of-Print Access

PublishersLunch

Google Books has achieved in France what the company has been unable to do in the US: They have settled the remaining lawsuits over their book scanning with the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l'édition) and the French Author's Association (Société des gens de lettres) and instituted a commercial arrangement for selling access to out-of-print books that Google has scanned. Strategic Partner Development Manager of Google Books France Philippe Colombet says the new "partnerships...will put France ahead of the rest of the world in bringing long lost out-of-print works back to life. From now, publishers will promote and commercialize electronic versions of their out-of-print books scanned by Google. In this win-win solution, publishers and authors retain control over the commercial use of their books – while at the same time, opening a practical path to bring to a wide audience our decade-long efforts to digitize books."

Colombet tells Bloomberg that the plan includes selling ebook versions of those out-of-print works, with the "majority of the revenue" going to the publisher. In a media conference call, he expressed the belief (or is it a hope) "that as the ebook market matures" attention will move from bestsellers and new releases to reaping revenue from older works (even though that's not what has happened so far in the US). If the settlement mimics agreements reached previously with Hachette Livre and La Martiniere Group, the publishers and/or authors will retain control over which works can be scanned or sold.

Colombet adds on the Google blog that "we remain hopeful to reach a solution in the US allowing us to make the world's books searchable and discoverable online." Google will also support an initiative from the author's association "to build a comprehensive database of published writers, a process that will help identify copyright holders and help them receive payment for their works." Google says this effort is separate from a recent French law establishing a system of collective rights management for out-of-print books.
Google blog