africangirl 's Profile

Some of the protest centers on a new, nonprofit Book Rights Registry that the settlement would create. The registry would find authors or their heirs and pay them for the use of their newly digitized writing, whether a blockbuster novel, a poem included in an anthology or liner notes for a long-ago blues album.

Experts say the registry would be a novel way to tackle the problem of distributing printed works widely when their authors are difficult or impossible to find. But even as the amount to be paid out and how it would be distributed remains an issue

it appears to create a price-fixing structure, it could stifle competition, and it may give Google exclusive rights over so-called orphan books whose copyright holders can't be found. The company plans to become a digital book seller; millions of scanned books, or snippets of them, have already vastly expanded its vaunted Web search engine, the company's prime business.

Authors are on both sides of the barricades.

While saying that the settlement could breathe life into millions of unavailable works, the government also said the deal raised "significant legal concerns," and was the target of an antitrust probe.

Last month the DOJ

Objectors

criticisms: that the deal would put Google, the author's group and a small number of large publishers in the driver's seat of as-yet undiscovered e-book technology; that foreign authors and publishers weren't included; that the settlement was struck in secret; that many publishers and authors — particularly those in other countries — didn't even know about the case and weren't given enough time to respond once they found out. Publishers in Sweden and Germany complained that the settlement notification was so poorly translated that they had trouble understanding the case.

Dan Clancy, Google's engineering director, said the deal affects only a neglected and unprofitable sliver of the book market.

"The vast majority of people I talk to are very excited about the idea that this content is going to be unlocked and opened up."

While it may not be optimal to have only one company selling digital copies of old books, it's "better than zero,"