Google, US publishers settle long running battle over 'right to digitise books'
London, Oct 5 (ANI)
Google and US publishing firms have settled a long-running copyright case over books and journals digitized by the Internet search giant.
The American Association of Publishers (AAP) said the Google Library Project will now receive access to in-copyright books from its members.
As per the agreement, publishers will have the right to remove their books from Google Library if they choose, the Telegraph reports.
Those publishers who choose to make their books available to Google's Library Project will receive a digital copy of the book that they can use to produce their own ebooks.
The paper quoted Tom Allen, president and chief executive of the AAP, as saying that they are 'pleased that this settlement addresses the issues that led to the litigation.'
"It shows that digital services can provide innovative means to discover content while still respecting the rights of copyright-holders," Allen added.
Five AAP publishers, the McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley and Sons and Simon and Schuster, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google in October 2005 over the search engine's plans to create the world's largest digital library.
According to the paper, Google has already scanned more than 20 million books for its digital library without obtaining prior permission from the authors and publishers.