Google alters book deal to pacify European publishers

In U.S., Google has reached a settlement with publishers to scan out of print and orphaned books and sell them online. Earlier, European books out of print in U.S. were also included for digitization.

The search giant has also promised to have two non-U.S. representatives onto the eight-person board of the Books Rights Registry that is being set up to govern the books settlement. One of Registry’s main tasks will be to find authors of out-of-print books digitized by Google, and redistribute revenues coming through the book search.

Google made these concessions as European Commission kick-started series of discussions "seeking precise details on the exact scope of the settlement” and "how many European works or publications will potentially be affected".

"It's a step in the right direction, [but] it's not enough for our members to sleep peacefully," said Jessica Saenger of the German booksellers association.

Strong resistance to book deal
At a hearing on Monday in Brussels, several organizations representing E.U. publishers, libraries, rights holders and businesses active in Internet commerce criticized Google’s effort saying it would result in a "a de facto monopoly" in the digital books market.

Nicolas George of the country's Ministry of Culture was quoted by The New York Times as saying that the deal presents "a clear and evident risk for cultural diversity".

"Google could unilaterally decide no longer to give access or modify access through a ranking scheme," George stated, and that it could decide so on "political and ideological considerations".

Google hopeful to win support
Despite mounting opposition, Google has succeeded in gaining some support for its book digitizing ambitions. Seeing scanning of books as a new opportunity to expand reach to the readers, some Commission officials and public libraries, want European Union (EU) to engage in digitization of books.

Viviane Reding, the EU's commissioner for information society and media, and Charlie McCreevy, commissioner for the bloc's internal market, said in a joint statement that "it is time for Europe to turn over a new e-leaf on digital books and copyright," and warned "If we are too slow to go digital, Europe's culture could suffer in the future."

The discussions are likely to continue this week. There will be a series of one-on-one meetings between Information Commissioner Viviane Reding, Dan Clancy, Google's top executive supervising Books project, and others on Tuesday. The book settlement is also subject to scrutiny by a New York court.

Google's Clancy stated in a blog posting Monday that the hearing with the Commission "offers us a wonderful opportunity to clear up misunderstandings and further explain the opportunities offered by the U.S. agreement. All of us, on both sides of the Atlantic share the same crucial goal -- to bring millions of lost books back to life".