Google Book Settlement Mark Two, continued

[wolfinthewood]

Edward Hasbrouck, co-chair of the Book Division of the National Writers Union, on the revised Google Book Settlement agreement: 'It's still fundamentally an opt-out, license by default system, not opt in.'

With this in mind, then, let's aim to establish the new timetable as this is set out in the memorandum to the revised settlement agreement. (Thanks to James Grimmelmann for extracting and assembling much of the relevant information [he also covers a couple more procedural points].)

• Monday, December 14, 2009: the Plaintiffs and Google will begin sending out notices of the revised agreement to the settlement class



• Thursday, January 28, 2010: deadline for opting out; also the deadline for sending objections to the court (for authors/publishers who opt in/stay opted in) or amicus briefs for those who are not parties to the settlement but wish to comment



• Thursday, February 18, 2010: final fairness hearing by the court



• March 31, 2011: new deadline for submitting cash payment claims for books and 'inserts' that Google scanned on or before May 5, 2009 without obtaining the permission of the rights-holder(s)



• April 5, 2011: deadline for applying to have a book removed from the digital copies held by the 'partner' libraries



• March 9, 2012: deadline for applying to have a book removed from Google's own databases

Notes on the above:

If you opted out of the settlement by 4 September 2009 (the original deadline) you will not have to opt out again (see Attachment H to the Amended Settlement Agreement, section 24).

However, if you opted out and are now, for some reason, having second thoughts about it, you may choose to opt yourself in (see the same section).

Notices of the revised settlement will be 'emailed or sent by postal mail to all persons who provided contact information on the official settlement website or on a Claim Form, who opted out of the original Settlement Agreement, or who filed an objection, amicus position or other statement with the Court' (Amended Settlement Agreement, section 12.2).

So if you opted out you ought to get a settlement notice shortly after the 14 December. (If you trusted yourself to the online opt-out procedure and you fail to get a notice, you may wish to write to the court stating that you have opted out, so as to be on the safe side. As I understand it, your letter should be filed with the court's papers and copied to the settlement administrator.) Likewise if you have claimed your books, you ought to receive a settlement notice.

On the cash payment claims: these are specifically for books that have been digitized by Google through its Library Program, not books that have been digitized with the permission of the publisher through its Partner Program. (To judge from emails I have received, some authors are very confused about this. Some books are being digitized through the Partner Program without the authors' realizing that this has been authorized by the publisher.)

If you neither opt out of the settlement nor claim your books by registering them on Google's database (see the settlement website) the US court will deem you anyway to be opted in – assuming the agreement is ratified, that is. That will mean that your work will be treated as unclaimed: Google may use it at will, within the terms of the settlement agreement, and you will have no control and receive no money.

That is apparently true in the US, at any rate. However, it has been suggested to me that UK authors may have some remedies in UK law. But of that, more later.

Note: the information above is given in good faith with absolutely no guarantees. If these dates and this info is crucial for you, check up. The main source is the memorandum to the revised settlement agreement.

Post Scriptum: Just in case it isn't clear from the above: under the amended GBS agreement, authors and publishers who have opted in and 'claimed' their books on Google's database now have a chance to change their minds and opt out again.