San Francisco (dpa) - Google has reached a settlement with five
major US publishers over the search company's scanning of millions of
library books without permission, the parties to the dispute
announced Thursday.
The publishers claimed that the scans violated copyright laws,
whereas Google maintained that showing scanned clippings of the books
in search results was allowable under the fair use doctrine.
Under the terms of the deal US publishers McGraw-Hill, Pearson
Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons and Simon & Schuster can
now choose whether to make their books and articles available for
scanning or have them removed, according to the statement.
Further terms of the deal were not announced, but it does not
effect a lawsuit filed on the same matter by a group representing
authors. The agreement does not need court approval since it is
considered a private settlement between the publishers and Google
rather than a class action settlement.
"By putting this litigation with the publishers behind us, we can
stay focused on our core mission and work to increase the number of
books available to educate, excite and entertain our users," David
Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said in a statement.
"We are pleased that this settlement addresses the issues that led
to the litigation," said Tom Allen, chief executive officer of the
publishers' association. "It shows that digital services can provide
innovative means to discover content while still respecting the
rights of copyright holders."
