FeedGoogle Books Settlement and SA Authors: Deadline is Fri 4 Sep: Read the Essential van Heerden/Preller Notes
Alert! Not to be alarmist, but TOMORROW 4 SEPTEMBER 2009 IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO OPT OUT OF THE GOOGLE BOOKS SETTLEMENT YEEEEAAAAUUURRRRGH!!
Wait – don’t panic! Author Etienne van Heerden has picked the brain of legal eagle Bertus Preller and laid out all the facts related to the settlement in an excellent post published today at LitNet.
More importantly, van Heerden/Preller have also laid out an opinion or two, the most essential of which is:
And your advice would be? Just to sit tight?
My view is not to opt out of the settlement.
Which means, in essence, if I’ve got this right, that if you choose to follow the advice, you now have more time and can either:
Opt in. If you opt in and lodge a claim in respect of a book prior to 5th January 2010, you will receive a share of the $45 million that Google has put aside to pay rights-holders (the exact amount will depend on how many people claim, but will be between US$60 and US$300). You will also receive 63 percent of any revenue received by Google (eg from advertising around your book search result or if it is made available on subscription to a library or other institution).
Or:
Do nothing – in which case you will lose the right to sue Google in the US even if Google does digitise your book and publish excerpts, and you will not receive any revenue for that use.
Anyone up for suing Google? Anyone? No takers? hmmmmm…
At any rate, you should definitely take the time to read this highly enlightening post in full:
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