Blount Says Orphan Works No Reason to Block Google Settlement; Benefits Touted
By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 6/25/2009 7:46:00 AM
In his interview with PW earlier this month, Macmillan president John Sargent, one of the two lead negotiators for the publishers in the Google Book Settlement, said supporters of the agreement would begin to make their voices heard soon. Wednesday afternoon, the publishers’ partner in the deal, the Authors Guild, posted a letter on its Web site from Guild president Roy Blount Jr. talking about orphan works and the benefits the settlement will bring to authors, publishers and readers.
Blount played down concerns expressed by some over orphan works , writing, “ I can’t see any reason to dissent from the settlement over the matter of orphan books.” Blount wrote that he is confident many of the rightsholders of orphan works will be found. Authors, he said “are all findable.” Moreover, the number of orphan works will diminish every year as checks are sent out from the Book Rights Registry, which has an obligation to find authors. Blount said fears of Google monopolizing the out-of-print market--which he termed a market filled with unmarketable works--are misplaced, although he did note that Google “will be the sole purveyor authorized by the settlement” for those out-of-print books whose rights holders can’t be found. Blount added that because the settlement’s are non-exclusive, rightsholders can provide access to their works to anyone they want
The posting also lists the benefits of the settlement, which include providing readers and researchers with access to million of out-of-print books; turning public libraries into “world class” research facilities; permit colleges and university to subscribe to a database of out-of-print works; and give commercial life to out-of-print books, “while protecting the economic rights of authors and publishers.”
The Guild estimates that the settlement will make at least 10 million out-of-print books available and at an average of 300 pages per book, the Guild concludes that represents at least “3 billion pages of professional written, professional edited text” that will be searchable.
