Google settles legal suit with AAP on circulation of copyrighted titles

Google has reached a legal settlement with Association of American Publishers on the copyrights infringement case. Both parties made a joint statement after settling the matter.

The AAP has agreed to publish their copyrighted books on Google’s digital library, Google Books, for free whether it has copyright protection or otherwise, the statement said. Both parties reached the settlement to increase the readership of books and traffic on electronic book stores.

Google Books is a free library available online to all users but to date it had been publishing scanned copies of printed books in 20 countries. Most of them had copyright protection that instigated AAP to take legal actions.

The new agreement leases Google the permission to publish 20 percent of the content on out-of-print books for free on Books. The search engine giant has linked the library with Google Now where all these books, the complete scanned copies, will be available for purchase.

The agreement “shows that digital services can provide innovative means to discover content while still respecting the rights of copyright holders,” AAP CEO Tom Allen said in a statement.

The new deal between Google and AAP will let publishers sell more copies of the titles that have run out of print versions. It will also increase traffic on Google Play, Google’s online shopping store that amasses movies, books, television shows and music for purchase, rent and borrow.

“The publishers have embraced the digital transition in books; Google is now a player and partner in that ecosystem, rather than a dangerous disruptive presence,” New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann wrote on Thursday in a blog.

By forging the deal with publishers Google now officially enters the bookselling market. It will actively compete with Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the two major sellers of reading content.

Publishers and authors who keep their books in Google’s digital library also will receive a digital version for their own use, Google says.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Oct 5 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.