AAP and Google settle lawsuit over book scanning

On 4 October 2012, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Google Inc. have reached a U.S. settlement in a copyright dispute involving the Google Library Project. The agreement settles the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Google in October 2005 by five AAP member publishers. The publisher plaintiffs are: The McGraw-Hill Companies; Pearson Education and Penguin Group (USA), both part of Pearson; John Wiley & Sons; and Simon & Schuster, part of CBS Corporation.

Under the settlement, announced in a joint press release, Google will allow users to browse up to 20% of books and then purchase digital versions through Google Play. Under the agreement, books scanned by Google in the Library Project can now be included by publishers. Furthermore, the settlement “acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders. US publishers can choose to make available or choose to remove their books and journals digitized by Google for its Library Project. Those deciding not to remove their works will have the option to receive a digital copy for their use. Apart from the settlement, US publishers can continue to make individual agreements with Google for use of their other digitally-scanned works.” Further terms of the agreement are confidential.

The settlement does not require court approval since "the settlement is between the parties to the litigation".

Also, this settlement does not affect Google’s current litigation with the Authors Guild, as emphasised in a statement by Paul Aiken, Executive Director of the Authors Guild.