The settlement with Google is nothing if not complex–the basic agreements runs to 141 pages, before the copious attachments. One of these, intended as a simple summary of the settlement for authors who think they qualify as part of the class action suit, runs 36 pages by itself. There will be lots of questions, both strategic and practical, and most of the answers will only make themselves known over time. Here are just a few that come to mind; feel free to add your own (questions or answers) in the comments field at PublishersMarketplace: — Does making a book available […]
Archives for October 2008
Google Settlement: Following the Money, Now and Later
Just over three years ago the Authors Guild and then the AAP and a group of five publishers filed lawsuits against Google over their library book-scanning project based on the principal that it constituted copyright infringement. Now with all the parties finding different ways of declaring their settlement agreement “historic,” principal has been sufficiently resolved to give way to hopes of commerce and accessibility. Google gets a pathway to a virtual monopoly for an online library of books in the US, and all parties leave the legal issues regarding fair use and orphan works sufficiently unresolved so as to discourage […]
Google Settles
Lawsuits brought by the Authors Guild on a class-action basis and five large publishers as representatives of Association of American Publishers against Google have been settled, pending approval by the US District Court. The release notes that “the agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.” Yes, compensation. Google will pay a total of $125 million, “to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to […]
Cutbacks at Doubleday
The Doubleday Publishing Group has eliminated a total of 16 positions spread across all of the group’s lines, including Doubleday, Broadway, Nan A. Talese, Speigel and Grau, and Waterbrook Multnomah. Spokesman David Drake confirms that the “jobs were cut in our editorial, marketing, publicity, art and ad promo departments.” Drake says, “These job cuts followed a close review of all aspects of our publishing operations by the management of our publishing group, and, as painful as it is for everyone here to lose a number of well-respected colleagues, we believe the decision was necessary and in the interest of our […]
Bin Laden Has a Book?
If he’s still alive, Osama Bin Laden may be working on a book called Nidal (or Struggle), according to news services in India and Pakistan. One Arab daily is quoted as saying the book “looks at the atrocities committed against Muslims by the West and how the Crusaders have harmed world development with their objective of boosting the West’s global influence that ultimately helped the United States to seize the Muslim world’s oil reserves.” Bin Laden is said to be writing in Arabic with the assistance of a young man who will translate the manuscript into English. So far, however, […]
Sister Sues Sister over Novel
Author of GILDING LILY Tatiana Boncompagni Hoover has sued her sister Natasha, alleging copyright infringement in charging that she secretly copied portions of the forthcoming novel HEDGE FUND WIVES. But the suit is also designed to invalidate claims by Natasha of rights in the work. Reuters says there are two filings for the book with the US Copyright Office–a joint copyright for both sisters submitted by Natasha, and a subsequent one from Hoover. The suit acknowledges that Natasha at the least “occasionally provided ideas relating” to the book. It claims that Natasha “shocked” her sister in asking for co-author credit […]