Having every book ever published available through Google has its benefits, but having copyrighted books on Google has made authorial heads to reel.
Irish writers are too busy writing to pay much attention to lawsuits brought by American writers' organizations. They've been warned, however, that a recent settlement in the U.S. will have implications all over the globe, because the Internet is world-wide.
Authors can opt out of Google's digitization program, but it will be up to them to stay on top of things and possibly sue Google if a copyrighted book appears in the search engine. Those who are unaware of the legal deal could find their book on-line and have to go through the whole process to get it taken down, but of course once a book is in the ether it's there forever for those with some technological skill.
Those who agree to have their books digitized can expect some payments from Google, based possibly on the number of hits, the amount of downloads, or something similar.
However, Ireland is finally catching up with the EU and jumping into a new program that gives authors a royalty payment every time someone borrows their book from a public library. Good news for those who write children's books, which are the most popular. Moderate good news for Maeve Binchy and Cecilia Ahern, who come in second.
The payments are scheduled to continue for seventy years after the writer's death, royalties owing to the estate. If an author is so unfortunate as to die before signing up for the program, however, their heirs are out of luck.
Would it constitute double-dipping if someone Googled a book on the library's computer and read it there? Does a physical book have to exit the library's doors, or would a printed download stashed in a tote bag not be counted as a checked-out book?
Someone will have to re-define some terms if the authors are to get what's due.
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