While a dispute over Google's book scanning project continues to deepen in the U.S., the search giant announced on Monday, June 11, that it had reached an agreement in France that could revive thousands of out-of-print books.
The French Publishers' Association and the authors' group Société des Gens de Lettres waived lawsuits in which they claimed Google's book scanning in the country violated copyright. Google, on its part, pledged to set up a "framework" agreement, enabling publishers to offer digital books of their works for Google to sell.
"Our hope is that these path-breaking partnerships will help jump-start the emerging French electronic book market," said Google Books France chief Philippe Colombet, as cited by the New York Times. Ebook sales have surged in the U.S., but disputes over copyrights and other issues have limited sales in France and in much of Europe.
Publishers' Control
The new agreement is based on deals that Google made separately with Hachette and La Martinière, two leading French publishers. Under all agreements, publishers have control over many conditions of Google's book scanning project, including which titles are available. "What we are saying is that this agreement respects our copyright law in France," explained Christine de Mazières, managing director of the French Publishers' Association, as cited by the New York Times. "That is very important."
In the United States, however, litigation seems only to deepen. In proposals to settle U.S. litigation last year, the court dismissed a $125 million settlement proposal, under which any book Google had scanned would automatically be included in the tech giant's data base unless the rights holder chose to opt out. The parties to the U.S. negotiations still haven't reached an agreement. Earlier this month, Google took a blow when a judge gave the authors a green light for a class action status in the dispute.
'Exporting the Deals Elsewhere'
According to Google, France is now the only country where the company has reached an industry-wide book-scanning agreement to cover out-of-print works that are still under copyright. This category covers a vast majority of books worldwide. French publishers also retain the right to keep their books out of Google. The publishers' association has 600 members. "No question this is an innovation," said Colombet. "We are interested in exporting these deals elsewhere."
Meanwhile, publishers in other European countries have kept an eye out to see what happened in the U.S. and France before adopting their own strategies regarding works that are out of print.
The agreement Google reached in France ends six long years of legal disputes with the publishers' and authors' groups. Google said it plans to make the books available from its Google Play store, which is yet to be launched in France, and publishers would also be able to sell the books elsewhere. The search giant also said that it would support a program to encourage children to read, as part of the deal. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
