Google Books reaches deal with French publisher La Martinière

After the deal with France’s largest publisher Hachette Livre, yet another French publisher, La Martinière has reached a deal on digital books with Google. Martinière will settle a copyright lawsuit against Google in exchange for control over how its out-of-print, copyright-protected works are scanned and sold via Google Books. The French publisher will split revenues from digital sales of these books with Google.

In 2009, La Martinière won a copyright case against Google in a Paris court that awarded the publisher 300,000 euros and ordered Google to stop scanning its books. Google appealed that decision, but last Thursday the two companies said they agreed to end the litigation due to this settlement.

Meanwhile, Google still struggles with publishers in the United States. Last winter, an American judge rejected a settlement proposal of Google. Under the American proposal the publishers could not choose which works would be scanned or sold, unlike the Hachette and Martinière deals. Google would be free to digitize and sell any works unless the copyright holders opted out. Understandably, the judge ruled the proposed settlement was unfair, inadequate and unreasonable.?

Now, Google hopes the Hachette deal will be a model for other agreements with European publishers. Hopefully for Google, this will be the case, as they still face lawsuits by three other French publishers, Albin Michel, Flammarion and Gallimard. These publishers claim Google scanned thousands of their works without their permission.

Reference: NY Times