A lot of talk recently about the Google Books result of an agreement that Google intends to conclude with U.S. publishers. The proposal of the agreement fell in October last year and was the result of class action lawsuit brought by organizations representing writers and publishers against the giant.
The agreement provides that, for U.S. $ 125 million, Google will be able to significantly increase the number of items available online without worrying about copyright infringement. It was agreed that Google will provide up to 20% of selected items for free. Universities and libraries will be able to pay lump sum for access to the entire book collection. Revenues will be split between Google, publishers and authors.
Proceedings of the agreement opened the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In the U.S., oppose the agreement some smaller publishers and companies from IT sector, who fear Google’s monopoly on the market for books online. There is even an organization called the Open Book Alliance, whose main purpose seems to be against the agreement.
Agreement also objected to the publisher and European politicians. The governments of Germany and France say that Google is in accordance with the law should be agreed at European authors that their work reproduced or published on the Internet. Google did not respond to these concerns directly, but sent out letters to the representatives of 16 European publishers, which offered them two seats on the board directing the organization of the Books Rights Registry.
Now performed strongly against the agreement, Chinese writers. Representatives of China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) told AFP that according to their data at least 17,922 books have been scanned and included in the Google Books.
According to the representatives CWWCS is a violation of the accepted world-wide rules to scanning, copying and use of the copyrighted work has been after obtaining the approval and payment of a fee (source: AFP, the Google Books project draws fire in China).
The reactions of Chinese writers can be read better by reading text on the site Juliet Ye Wall Street Journall Fri Google Books Settlement: The Chinese Chapter. Currently, authors do not plan to fight in court with Google, but seem to have no doubt that the California company is doing something wrong and illegal. This view is cited by the WSJ Chinese lawyer. In his opinion the agreement between Google and publishers will not be able to defend the company in court.
Google defends itself by claiming that the company’s goal is to restore life to the books already niewydawanych. The company stresses that the controversial agreement covers the U.S., is to be concluded in accordance with U.S. law and U.S. readers only through him will have access to books.
Google intends to allow foreign authors obtain remuneration when their works were in American libraries and collections have been scanned. It should be noted, however, that the author will need to claim for salary. Such an approach to the issue is really controversial and difficult to be surprised angry authors. Their books have been scanned without asking for permission and will be available on the basis of an agreement with overseas organizations, unknown to them.
On the other hand Google is a little wrong, saying that the book has already niewydawane may now be available online. Noticed that the European Commission, which is inspired by the idea of Google’s decided to start work on the changes in copyright law, in particular concerning the works of “orphan”.