Google Books Settlement - time to state your claim
On 20 May 2009 the Writers' Guild sent the following letter to Guild members.
Dear Writers’ Guild member
Google Books Settlement – Time to Stake Your Claim
An American court settlement last year between Google and the US Authors Guild and publishers’ organisation could mean that money is waiting for you – and it is still possible for you to take action.
Google, the giant US internet search and data corporation, was sued after scanning many thousands of books – mostly out of print but still in copyright – in certain US libraries, and making them available on the internet. The outcome of the “class action” case means that the author of each book scanned is being offered at least $60 (it could be more) and a new agency will be set up to handle future additional payments.
The Guild has been asked by the Court-approved notice provider to circulate information about the settlement, including the different options open to authors, and this will be found in the enclosed document. If you have access to the internet, more detailed information about the settlement is available at googlebooksettlement.com. By visiting this website you can register your name and details of your books, and if the settlement proceeds as expected, you will hear in due course whether you will be receiving any payment.
If you do not have access to the internet but are a member of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (as most Full Members of the Guild are), you can use a service provided by ALCS to check whether your books are included in the case, and if so stake your claim. If you do not have access to the internet, we suggest you call ALCS on 020 7264 5700 to find out more about this service. Your name and the titles of all books you have registered with ALCS will be checked against the Google database of digitised works. Even if for any reason you are not in ALCS, the Guild has arranged for you to have access to this process.
The deadline for claims is 5 January 2010 (now extended to 31 March 2011) – it sounds a long way off, but it is better to deal with it now, otherwise you could easily forget about it until it is too late.
Action is more urgent if for any reason you wish to opt out of the settlement – that has to be done in writing before 4 September 2009. If you opt out, Google will have to stop using your work, but you will not be paid automatically for any unauthorised use it has already made. You would retain your right to sue Google individually, but for most writers that is not a practical proposition. Therefore the Guild does not see a strong reason for most members to opt out.
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain – along with other writers’ organisations in the UK – is interested in discussing with Google a parallel scheme to allow for the scanning of out-of-print books held by British libraries, but we expect to have to wait until the US settlement is operational before we can make progress.
Yours sincerely
Bernie Corbett General Secretary
N.B. We have heard that the Google Settlement website may be the target of attempts to obtain financial information from claimants through an Internet "phishing" operation. A number of writers who have submitted claims have received emails claiming to be from the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS). These messages should be ignored. Information about this phishing operation and advice on how to report suspicious correspondence can be found on the links below:
http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html?portlet=5
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11667578?source=most_emailed)
More information
Notice of Class Action Settlement - summary (pdf)
Notice of Class Action Settlement - in full (pdf)
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