French publisher group strikes deal with Google over e-books

Even as a dispute over Google's digital book project deepens in the United States, the company said Monday that it had reached an agreement in France that could bring back to life thousands of out-of-print works.

The French Publishers Association and the Société des Gens de Lettres, an authors' group, dropped lawsuits in which they contended that Google's book scanning in France violated copyright. Google agreed to set up a "framework" agreement under which publishers would be able to offer digital versions of their works for Google to sell.

"Our hope is that these pathbreaking partnerships will help jump-start the emerging French electronic book market," said Philippe Colombet, head of Google Books France. While sales of e-books have surged in the United States, they have been held back in France and much of Europe by disputes over rights and other issues.

The deal is modeled on agreements that Google struck separately with two leading French publishers, Hachette Livre and La Martinière. Under all of these agreements, the publishers retain control over many conditions of the book-scanning project, including which titles are made available.

"What we are saying is that this agreement respects our copyright law in France," said Christine de Mazières, managing director of the French Publishers Association. "That is very important."

It is also different from proposals to settle American litigation over Google's book scanning. In those talks, a federal judge in New York last year rejected a proposed $125 million settlement, under which any book that had been scanned would automatically be included in Google's database unless the rights holder specifically opted out.

The parties to the American talks have been unable to reach a new agreement. Late last month, Judge Denny Chin granted class-action status to the authors suing Google.

Google said France was now the only country where it had an industrywide book-scanning agreement in place to cover works that are out of print but still under copyright — a category that covers most of the world's books.

"No question this is an innovation," Mr. Colombet said. "We are interested in exporting these deals elsewhere."

Publishers in other European countries have mostly been waiting to see what happened in the American legal dispute and the French litigation before developing their own strategies with regard to out-of-print works.

The agreement is not binding on French publishers, which retain the right to exclude their books from Google. The French Publishers Association has almost 600 members.

Other digital book initiatives are under way in France; the Parliament recently passed a law authorizing the French National Library to scan so-called orphan works — out-of-print books whose copyright holder cannot be found — for an openly available digital repository. Orphan works would be automatically included unless the rights holders objected within six months.

The deal with Google ends six years of legal battles with the French publishers' and authors' groups.

In a related dispute, a judge sided with La Martinière in 2009, ruling that Google had violated the publisher's copyright. Three other publishers last year dropped similar litigation against Google.

Under the agreement announced Monday, Google said it planned to make the books available from its digital content store, Google Play, which has not yet been introduced in France. Publishers would also be free to sell the books elsewhere.

Details of the deal, like the revenue-sharing breakdown between Google and the publishers, were not disclosed. As part of the arrangement, Google said it would support a program to encourage reading among children.

(Published by NY Times - June 11, 2012)