JISC RSC YH Exchange News

The New York Times has reported that as of 24/09/09, the Settlement was officially withdrawn from the New York court where it was being decided.

Whilst the settlement may be withdrawn from the time being, issues that it has raised may be reinvigorated in the future, therefore JISC continues to be very keen to gather views from the Higher and Further Education community.

The US Google Book Settlement represented a major watershed in the digitisation and access to millions of books, including in copyright publications and therefore the rediscovery of a huge proportion of the world’s knowledge. Effectively it enabled democratisation of access to information by making books available digitally to new audiences supported by fully searchable tools. It also provided a solution for out-of-print works. The settlement was supported by a balanced revenue share model with authors and other rights holders.

However, the settlement and its potential ramifications sparked not only global support, but also controversy and opposition. The withdrawal of the settlement was due to objections from the US competition authorities, and concerns raised at a congressional hearing because of the anti-trust and copyright issues it raised – not least because it would have given Google the sole authority for books whose copyright holder could not be found and provide inadequate protection to foreign rights holders.

This is your chance to share your views about the Google Book Settlement. Even though the settlement as it stood has been withdrawn, JISC is interested in gathering views from the UK Higher and Further education community in order to help inform JISC’s approach to these issues, both in relation to the future iterations of the Google Book Settlement itself and more broadly. We can assume, even though this has been withdrawn for the time being, that we will see subsequent settlements that affect UK rights holders and have an impact on access to information for education and research. Your response will also help JISC understand any potential implications associated with any possible future European settlement.

To share your views please respond via the Write to Reply website by 26 October 2009.