Google narrows book rights in revised settlement

Google scaled back its ambitious digital book project in a revised legal settlement announced late Friday that would narrow its control over millions of online titles. The concessions come after heavy scrutiny by the Justice Department, Web competitors and some authors groups who said that the original $125 million agreement with authors and publishers would give Google too much control over pricing in the distribution of book titles and could edge out competitors. They also argued that the deal would allow Google to profit off of the scanning and distribution of books whose authors are unknown, violating copyright laws. The new settlement was submitted just before midnight to Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court of Southern District of New York, who will ultimately decide whether to approve the deal. Among several changes, the parties agreed to hand over control of so-called orphan works -- books whose copyright holders are unknown or not found -- to an independent trustee who would administer the licensing of those titles. Previously, Google would have controlled rights to those books. Under the new agreement, the court must approve the appointed trustee, who would have authority to license those orphan works to other companies, including Google competitors Amazon and Microsoft. The trustee would also handle funds generated from those licenses. If unclaimed for 10 years, those funds would go to charities in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain. After five years, a portion of those proceeds would also go to tracking down the holders of rights to orphan works.