Largely in response to industry criticisms and government intervention, amendments have been made to the Google Book Settlement, with details being released in New York over the weekend. The new deal has some significant changes for Australian rightsholders.

The settlement followed a class action brought by US publishers and authors, and requires court approval to proceed.

Under the settlement originally put to the court for approval, the “class” that was affected by the settlement included rightsholders from any country around the world. This was a serious concern for many rightsholders, especially in Europe where governments are undertaking their own digitisation initiatives. In response to these concerns the “class” definition has now been narrowed. Under the amended settlement, only rightsholders for books registered with the US Copyright Office or published in the UK, Australia, or Canada will be eligible to participate in the new deal.

In keeping with this major change, the Book Rights Registry (BRR),the independent body that will administer payments under the settlement, will have a Board that includes at least one author director and one publisher director from the UK, Canada and Australia respectively.

There have also been significant changes to the settlement in regards to “orphaned works”: books for which the rightsholder is unknown or cannot be located. The BRR will now include a court-approved fiduciary who will represent the interests of rightsholders in relation to the commercial exploitation of orphaned works.

How monies are allocated to orphaned works if the rightsholder can never be found is also set to change. There are now two options:

a) after unclaimed funds are held for five years, the BRR, in collaboration with organisations in Canada, the UK and Australia, and in consultation with the fiduciary, may use up to 25% of the funds for the sole purpose of locating rightsholders; and

b) remaining unclaimed funds will be held for the rightsholders for at least 10 years, after which the BRR, subject to approval, may apply to the Court for permission to distribute these funds to literacy-based charities in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Other changes to the settlement include amendments to the definition of “commercially available” works, alterations to dispute resolution procedures, a narrowing of additional revenue models, and other changes which will make it easier for other companies to compete with Google. There has also been a general commitment to improve the claiming process and the website.

In commenting on the amended settlement, Michael Lijic, Copyright Agency Limited (CAL’s) International Affairs and Digital Strategy Manager stated, “The new deal is a significant event for Australian rightsholders. Australia is now one of only four countries who are eligible to participate in the settlement, which means it is very important that all rightsholders in this country look at their options very seriously.

“CAL remains impartial on the new agreement; we see our primary role as educating our members, and ensuring they are aware of all of their options.”

A new date for the fairness hearing – a court session that will determine if the agreement should be approved- has not yet been set. CAL will continue to update its members on the revised settlement as events unfold.

For further details please visit CAL’s website, or the official settlement website.

About CAL: CAL is an Australian copyright management company whose role is to provide a bridge between creators and users of copyright material. CAL represents authors, journalists, visual artists, surveyors, photographers and newspaper, magazine and book publishers as their non-exclusive agent to license the copying of their works to the general community. CAL’s Board is authorised under its constitution to allocate up to 1% of all revenue to support cultural development.