Google to remove European books from registry
September 8, 2009
Google’s new online book registry which has made a deal with U.S. publishers for $125 million to digitally scan out-of-print, out-of-copyright and orphaned works to be sold online has made conciliatory moves in Europe.
Google has announced that any European works still commercially available in Europe (but not in the U.S.) will not go into the registry unless the holders of the copyright give express permission. It had been previously assumed that those holding the European rights to out-of-print books or books that had not been published in the U.S. had opted for the digitization process of those works. Google has also said that it will also allow two non-Americans onto the Books Rights Registry board to watch over the settlement.
Creator of the Google books programme, Dan Clancy said that he hoped that the clarification of the position of the rights holder would ease the minds of many of those voicing their concerns in Europe and added that the programme was there to allow authors to make money out of their books that were no longer being printed.
Although a number of European publishing organizations are still concerned about their members books being scanned illegally there are also those who are worried that Europe could be left behind in terms of getting out-of-print works in front of the public again. Europe’s copyright laws are too fragmented to allow a system like Google books to operate. Many think it’s time to tighten up legislation so that consumers can gain access to the out-of-print and orphan works that make up around 90% of all European libraries.
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