GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH LAWSUIT

Just a heads-up concerning the Google Book Search lawsuit. This is especially important for those of you who have out-of-print titles.(Your publisher is responsible for dealing with Google regarding your books in print.)

In brief, Google has scanned in thousands of copyrighted books, and they've been allowing free access to much of the copyrighted material online without publisher
or author consent. Google claims no responsibility for this, claiming they haven't violated any law but have decided to settle with those who have sued. *Copyright holders* whose material has been scanned are eligible for a $60 payment per book from Google. If your book is still in print through a royalty-paying house, the publisher is overseeing the rights to the book, and it is their responsibility to make the claim for the book. If your book is out-of-print or self-published, however, you need to check to see if the material has been uploaded onto the Google
Book Search site. If it is on the site, you need to fill out a claim form requesting payment.

To find out more, visit these links:
To check if your book has been scanned--you could check for current
titles and then request that your publisher have Google remove it from
the database:
_http://www.google.com/googlebooks/library.html
_ To read about the settlement:
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/
To find the claim form:
http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders/

Google plans to continue to scan and upload material unless the rights holder fills out a claim form telling them *not* to scan a title. They will scan your material unless you tell them not to! Each of you with out-of-print or self-published books should fill out a claims form requesting Google not scan your books into their database. (You will need to remember to do this EVERY TIME book rights revert to you.

If you have out-of-print material that you feel should be on Google Book Search, please contact your agent. There are a few rare cases where the author might benefit.