Google Books Settlement Finds Canadian Critics

The Writers’ Union of Canada has emerged as the first international critic of the Google Books settlement filed with a federal judge last Friday–suggesting that libraries should pay licensing fees to connect to the collection of scanned books.

The union’s chair Erna Paris wrote a letter to their membership, criticizing the way libraries and orphan works are handled in the settlement. Here’s a quote: “Public libraries and non-profit higher educational institutions should pay a licensing fee to have terminals available for public access, even if they choose to provide free access to their library patrons on such terminals … These library patrons will have to pay for each page that they print out from such a terminal, but the lack of access fees for their institution could create expectations in Canada that would erode copyright protections here.”

Under the terms of the revised settlement, only books from United States, Britain, Australia or Canada can be included in Google’s efforts to digitize millions of books. The new version would feature an “independent fiduciary” who will decide how Google can handle orphan works– books where the original copyright holder cannot be determined. This week a federal judge is expected to set up a fairness hearing about the settlement. (Via Publishers Weekly)

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