Google and Publishers Finally Reach Agreement on Ebook Lawsuit

Google and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have been battling for the past 7 years on account of the creation of digital copies of books, all of them stored on the Internet, for everyone to read, via Google. The idea was that the publishers’ copyrights were violated by Google, as the company simply scanned and posted millions of books and journals online via the Google Library Project.

After that the books became searchable and readable to anyone. The search engine giant defended its actions and argued that this is a vital public service, since they provide access to rare books. The problem is that publishers and authors feel they are not compensated enough for their work because of Google. Now, as an agreement has been reached, the publishers who battled Google will be able to decide if they want their work digitized or not on Google’s Library. The publishers who choose to participate will get a digital copy of their material from Google, while the company will remove the books and journals of the companies who didn’t approve of their content sharing.

Well, at least that’s one litigation less for the search engine giant, who is already busy battling Apple through its third party partners. Google Books offers users the option to browse up to 20% of the books in its library and then purchase the digital books via Google Play. Partnering with the New York Public Library and Stanford University Libraries, Google has already scanned around 15 million books in an effort to provide easier access to knowledge, as they claim.