Debate Begins on Revised Settlement
-- Publishers Weekly, 11/16/2009 8:38:00 AM
The debate over the revised Google Book Search agreement centered around the creation of a fiduciary who will be solely responsible for the unclaimed works otherwise known as orphan works. The addition of a fiduciary is part of a change to how the settlement treats orphaned works, which includes keeping all funds generated by such works in an Unclaimed Works Fund for at least 10 years.
The fiduciary, who will be appointed with court approval will represent the interest of all unclaimed works until the owner of the works comes forward or is identified by the Book Rights Registry, which remains charged with search for copyright owners. After unclaimed works are held for five years, the BRR can use up to 25% of funds to search for owners; after 10 years if the rightsholders are not found the money, with the permission of the court, would go to a literary-based charity.
Bertelsmann’s Richard Sarnoff stressed that while some people sue unclaimed works and orphaned works interchangeably, true orphaned works of those that will never be claimed. He said he expects a significant number of unclaimed works to be claimed once they start to generate revenue. The modified deal, he added, should make it easier for Congress to pass orphaned works legislation. Congress has debated orphaned work bills for years with passing any law.
The other major change to the agreement, limiting the settlement to only works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, or published in Canada, the U.K. and Australia, will eliminated 95% of foreign-language editions, said Authors Guild executive director Paul Aiken. Google's an Clancy, who said Google remains excited about the deal, noted that Google is willing to work with international publishers to add them to the agreement. As part of the change, U.K. Australian and Canadian publishers have been named plaintiffs in the case and will gain representation of the BRR board.
To read more of the discussions about the revised deal click here.
