Google has reached a settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers in a lawsuit that dates back to 2005, according to paidContent.org.

Google will pay $125 million into a fund for authors. The Money "will be used to set up a Book Rights Registry that will let U.S. copyright holders register their works so that they can get a cut of any resulting online retail and ad sales." Google scans books and makes them available through its book search, http://books.google.com/.

Many observers expect that Google and the book industry will now start to work cooperatively to place copyrighted works online and charge for them.

"We're trying to create a new structure where there will be more access to out-of-print books, with benefits both to readers and researchers and to the rights holders of those books - authors and publishers," Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the publishers association, said Tuesday in an interview with the Associated Press.

According to the Associated Press, Google will now to contribute $125 million to the fund, including about $34.5 million for "a nonprofit Book Rights Registry that will store copyright information and coordinate payments." Google will also pay $60 per completed work for the millions of copyrighted books already scanned. It will also pay legal fees for the Authors Guild and publishing association. Finally, income from the scanned books will be divided up, with 63 percent going to the copyright holders and 37 percent going to Google.


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Roel Smart