The Google Book Settlement: a survival aid for UK authors

[wolfinthewood]

My new paper on the Google Book Settlement is now online:

The Google Book Settlement: a survival aid for UK authors

I opted out in August. Having taken a good look at the agreement in its amended form, I have no intention of opting in again.

But every author's situation and outlook is different (something to which the Google Book Settlement agreement, with its one-size-fits-all provisions, pays not the least attention).

This 'survival aid' has been written not specifically to persuade authors to opt out but to help provide the information they will need in assessing the scope and detail of the settlement and weighing up their options. Which still remain open: for a short period only. The deadline for opting out is 28 January.

This paper is offered in good faith, after a lot of thought and study, but with no guarantee that it gets everything absolutely right. The settlement agreement is a complex and difficult document (some say, perhaps jokingly, that even the lawyers who drafted it don't entirely understand it). My summary does, however, contain references to the relevant sections and subsections; if you are an author (or an agent), it should help you find your way around. It is not a substitute for reading the agreement itself, which is probably best studied at the Public Index, where the hyperlinks make it easier to navigate.

Although parts of it relate particularly to authors published in the UK, most of it relates just as much to authors published in Canada, Australia and the US.

If you have arrived here out of the blue: I am not a lawyer. Any author with valuable literary properties to safeguard would be sensible to consult one.

Why am I doing this? Because I have been disturbed by the inadequacy, and sometimes the demonstrable inaccuracy, of material that I have seen that has been circulated to or directed at authors. Because, in my experience, it has not been made at all easy for authors to acquire the full information they need to

a) weigh up their options

b) put their decisions properly into practice.

If you are thinking of opting out, you will find information on how to do this here.

If you have been planning to stay in and claim your books, there is quite a lot of information in this 'survival aid' that it is likely you will find worth reading.

If you have claimed your books and now wish you had opted out: you can still change your mind and opt out, so long as you take action before 28 January.

Comments

Google opt-out

[(Anonymous)]

I hoped you opted out of the Settlement via a letter sent by certified mail and if not I think it's a good idea. My lawyer advised me to opt out by that method. Also, in my experience, the handy on-line opt-out-of-the-Settlement form provided by Google returns no acknowledgement of your submission: No confirming web page, no email. Most shopping carts on the net can manage to do both, but not Google. Therefore, if Google publishes your books anyway, you have no legal proof that you opted out of the Settlement.

I saw you linked to a post I made somewhere, via two of my eight books having been scanned after my having opted them out of Library scanning using _that_ handy Google online form. You know, the one Google set up right after they were sued to reassure copyright holders. Google has apparently scanned five of my books by now. They are in Google Book Search and although Google Book Search is not identical to the scanned books database, a journalist who talked to Google told me that if they're in Google Book Search, they were scanned. It's just that a book not being there is no guarantee it was not scanned. The new Settlement (unlike the previous one) contains no scanning deadlines, so the other three could be scanned by Google at any time anyway.

I submitted opt-outs for three of the scanned books before I sent them to the printer, so there is no way Google could have scanned them before they were opted out. However, my handy little Google "account" for those books opted out of Library Scanning, contains no opt-out dates, so I could not prove that in court. The APA was smart enough to send Google a written letter with _their_ opt-outs; not that it stopped Google scanning hundreds of APA works anyway. That "you can forbid us to scan your books" gesture was empty PR.

Fran Grimble
Lavolta Press