Google settles case over out-of-print book directory

Google has settled lawsuits brought by authors and book publishers, including the UK's Pearson, with a deal that will make millions of out-of-print books available on the internet.

The US-only deal, announced yesterday, creates a Book Rights Registry, which will funnel payments from Google's controversial book search service to the people who hold the copyright. The search company has spent several years making digital copies of all the books held in US libraries so that users can search them, but it has attracted criticism from publishers, who said it was infringing their copyrights. Some have signed up individual deals to share revenue from advertising sold alongside the searches and the sale of the digital copies, but others have fought the entire plan through the US courts.

The agreement settles two suits brought by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and individual companies, including Simon & Schuster and the Pearson subsidiaries Penguin and Pearson Education. Under the deal, which still has to be rubber-stamped by a judge, Google will spend $125m (£79m) compensating the authors and publishers and creating the registry for out-of-print works.

The parties had not immediately calculated what the size of the payment to Pearson would be.

US users will now be able to view up to 20 per cent of each of these works for free, or buy a digital copy. Libraries will be able to buy access, meaning even local libraries will be able to have access to millions of books.

Most in-print books will be excluded, and Google's search will throw up only tiny snippets of these, unless authors and publishers specifically agree to a different arrangement.