Google pays writers for old books
Copyright lawsuit payday
Thursday, 12 February 2009, 13:10
SEARCH OUTFIT GOOGLE has started paying the authors of tens of thousands of out-of-print books what could amount to a $125 million settlement.
The search engine is supposed to be contacting authors, publishers, and their heirs and successors to tell them that they may be eligible for a whopping $60 one-off fee as well as 63 per cent of the ad cash revenue generated by each book that Google scanned.
Google is digitising the works from many major libraries, including the New York Public Library and the libraries at Stanford and Harvard universities, and is making those texts searchable on pages plastered with advertisements. µ
L'Inq
Cnet
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So what chance the music labels will do the same with all the older tracks they're supplying to iTunes and the like without bothering to get relevant permissions from the rights owners ?
How about adapting the copyright laws? Obviously there is no commercial interest if a book is out of print for more than a year. In that case the book should end up in the public domain, forever, and the same should apply to other copyrighted works. Too radical?