On 13 November 2009, the plaintiffs taking action against Google for scanning and creating an electronic database of their books filed an amended settlement agreement and a motion for preliminary approval of the amended settlement.

The changes proposed in the amended settlement agreement include:

• the class of authors and publishers narrowed to those from the US, Australia, the UK and Canada only;

• each country represented in the class will have an author and a publisher seat on the Book rights Registry Board;

• an independent fiduciary will have sole decision-making responsibility in relation to unclaimed works;

• unclaimed funds will be held for up to 10 years, not 5, with any unclaimed monies at the end of the 10 year period to go court-approved charities in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia;

• any discounting will come out of Google’s share of funds, not from authors or publishers;

• limits have been placed on potential future business models – none of which may be implemented without notice to rightsholders and approval of the Registry board.

More information:

Authors Guild article

Copyright Agency Limited

Full news release