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Millions of out-of-print books could be made available on Google after it signed a deal with publishing groups and authors.
The breakthrough comes seven years after Google secretly began scanning books with the aim of selling them online.
The deal will enable British authors to benefit, as they will receive £35 for each title plus a share of the proceeds from internet sales via Google Books or other websites.
But critics described the move as “burglary” and urged “extreme caution about ceding rights”.
The names of the books to be made available have not been released for legal reasons, while experts warn that the deal could yet be scuppered by opponents in the US.
Google, which has copied 10 million books, seven million of which were out of print, has struck an amended deal with authors' associations in America to publish the works. Only books published in the US, UK, Canada and Australia will be part of the deal.
The Publishers Association and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society estimated that more than 20,000 UK writers could benefit. Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publishers Association, told The Times: “Undeniably, there's an element of pragmatism at work here. You can argue as to whether this should exist or not. But given that it does, we think that it is the best course to take.” People or companies that hold the rights to books will be able to set the sale price or the cost of downloading sections.
However book publisher Anthony Cheetham said: “We should be extremely cautious about ceding rights to any organisation in this sort of default manner. It is generally felt that if somebody wants to reproduce they have to seek the owner's permission.
“Somebody said it was a bit like a burglar coming in and taking all your possessions and calling you afterwards and saying that he was selling them on.”
Reader views (3)
I have nenefitted from a Google-scanned book that was long out of print and the author deceased. The alternative would have been spending a lot of money to get a 'rare book' or going backwards and forwards to a librart for reference.
This is great for making available such items for research purposes that would otherwise just gather dust in an archive somewhere.
Having said that, I can understand the problems for items still in print or pending reprint. The same situation exists though for Music and perhaps similar arrangements could be made for Books as for Music.
A bonus for authors is that it should become cheap to market their products as it is an expensive and risky business to print physical books, whereas they will probably already exist in some electronic form.
- Stephen Panting, Milton Keynes, UK, 09/01/2010 13:35
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An author may not want to reprint some of his or her books for whatever reason. Copyright used to mean a right to that sort of control. The right to refrain from publishing. Google seems to think it means only the right to a "reasonable" royalty. O brave new world.
- Bloke, Lambeth, 17/11/2009 11:42
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Ha! Gives some of the big book retailers a taste of their own medicine! It's crazy the way you only get the few books they want to sell you on offer - especially if it's childrens books, where some major classics are just being left by the wayside because people don't know to look for them.
- Roz, France, 17/11/2009 09:06
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