All of Fiction Costs $125 Million

[John Dishon]

http://fictioncircus.com/news.php?id=308&mode=one

My favorite parts of the article:

"As we all know, Google recently bought all out-of-print fiction from the "Author's Guild" for $125 million dollars. This laughable, ludicrously small price is the kind of price that somebody would only offer for something that they didn't actually own.

You know, like Napoleon selling Louisiana to America in order to pay for his war in Europe. And then America sends Louis and Clark out to explore, and it turns out there are all these dirty fucking NATIVES there. Luckily, they need blankets."


"Note: writers and publishers will be receiving $45 million of the settlement, which is (I'm not a mathematician) less than half of the agreed-upon $125 million dollar payout. The rest of the money will be going to lawyers and (I guess) the "Authors Guild" to help fund their next act of heroism."


"The "Author's Guild" memo contains instructions for "claiming your book" from Google. Here is instruction number one:

'1. If you file your claim by January 5, 2010, and a book in which you have a copyright interest [THAT YOU WROTE] is scanned by Google before May 5, 2009, you will be entitled to a small share (at least $60 per book, but up to $300, depending on the number of claims [DON'T GET GREEDY])'

So, the verdict is in, and the settlement to writers is that they will each receive less than $300 bucks for their stolen books. Here's a short history: writers got mad that GOOGLE WAS STEALING THEIR BOOKS BY SCANNING THEM WITHOUT ASKING AND MAKING THEM AVAILABLE ONLINE, writers appealed to the "Author's Guild" for help, the "Author's Guild" settled with Google for $125 million instead of taking the claim to trial and declaring Google's practice illegal, and now each writer gets almost enough money to buy a handgun at Wal-Mart to blow their brains out."

[I. J. Parker]

How do you figure that, Benjamin? Nobody gave Google permission in my case. They found and took!
Apparently, there's an anti-trust suit brewing now.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Wow, this might be enough to make me self-publish. At least I'd have total control of my rights.

[I. J. Parker]

You may be right. But those that accept the settlement are out of it. I just wish that Google would stop using anything that isn't in the public domain.

[B.R.Stateham]

The thing is--even with the settlement coming up, the legal battles are not over. I'm convinced as the settlement sets in and more editors, authors, and agents realize what the hell happened, there will be blue-suited legal eagles in court filing briefs from sun up to sunset.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, I just said more or less the same on Naomi's thread on Forum. You'd be surprised how many people in the business think that was a good deal.