Google does a U-turn on book deal

16 November 2009

Google has halved its controversial plans to put the world's books online and instead the new proposal, submitted last Friday, will only cover books that are registered with the US Copyright Office or published in Britain, Australia or Canada.


This cut, which is hopped to appease critics including, the US Justice Department, authors and publishers, means that 95% of non-US books will not be included in the deal and that the settlement will only be binding in America.

 

The agreement should settle a 2005 lawsuit, which accused the search engine giant of copyright infringement after it scanned a vast amount of out-of-print books.