The Authors Guild announced a settlement with Google today, finally resolving their lawsuit that stalled Google's efforts to scan books into a giant database. In 2005, the Guild sued Google over efforts to scan millions of pages of books from major university libraries into Google's book archiving project.

The settlement still needs to be approved by a federal judge. As part of the agreement, Google will spend $34.5 million helping create an independent Book Rights Registry that will monitor book copyrights on the Internet. Visit this page to read PDF copies of the settlement.

A letter from the Guild's president, Roy Blount Jr.'s, described the payout for authors:

"There'll be at least $45 million for authors and publishers copyright books and other copyrighted texts have been scanned without permission. If your book was scanned and you own all the rights, you'll get a small share of this, at least $60, depending on how many rights holders file claims."

(Via Writer Beware)