You may have heard about the Google settlement in the news or from publishing organisations. Google had scanned a large number of books and made sections of them available on the internet without permission from authors or publishers - they argued that this was acceptable under the ‘fair use' provisions in the US, but authors and publishers collectively sued Google for breach of copyright laws. The settlement reached means that at least US$60 will be paid out for each book as compensation. This only relates to books scanned prior to 5th January 2009.

For UWAP books that are still in print, it is our responsibility as the publisher to find out whether any books were scanned without permission by Google, and then lodge a claim for each relevant book. Any payment received in relation to that claim will be split according to the terms in the legal settlement clause/s set out in the author's Publishing Agreement, and we will forward on the author's proportion. UWAP opted in to the settlement as part of the Australian Publishers Association.

For UWAP books that are out of print, all rights have reverted to the author and so therefore it is the responsibility of the author to find out whether their book was scanned by Google, and lodge any claims for compensation. However, you will have already needed to have opted into the settlement to take part, and this deadline has now passed.

The deadline for lodging claims is 5th June 2010. It may take some time for payments to come through after that date - we have not been provided with any information on the timing.

Please note that UWAP is part of the Google Partner Program which is a useful tool for advertising books to customers, who then are able to order the books online from US retailers. This is currently managed by our US distributor and therefore is only relevant to books that have been sold in the US at this stage. The Google Partner Program is completely separate from the Google settlement, and any book that has been advertised by Google under the Partner Program was done so with our permission, and cannot be claimed under the settlement.

For detailed information about the settlement please see the CAL website: http://www.copyright.com.au/Latest_News/Google_book_Settlement_1.aspx

UWAP cannot provide legal advice on this matter and this summary is for your information only. UWAP cannot guarantee the accuracy of this summary.