Book Rights Registry Closer to Launch
-- Publishers Weekly, 4/20/2009 2:23:00 PM
The creation of a Book Rights Registry is one of the key facets of the Google settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, and those two groups have signed an agreement with the Book Industry Study Group to have BISG begin to lay the groundwork for launching the BRR. Under the agreement, BISG executive director Michael Healy will devote about half of his time to BRR issues and if the court approves the settlement in June, Healy is likely to become head of the BRR. The BRR, backed with $34.5 million from Google, will be responsible for building a database of rightsholders information and for disbursing all money generated through the use of books in Google’s book search services.
To ease the administrative load on Healy, BISG recently hired Angela Bole as deputy executive director. Bole had been associate director before she left for a job with John Wiley.
