I was talking to an agent friend of mine who also happens to be an intellectual property attorney. Handy friend to have.
We were discussing the Google Book Settlement as I had just recently read the entire settlement agreement. I wanted to have a clear understanding of it before I formulated my client letter that went out last week.
This agent friend has done a lot of research on this impending settlement and has written several articles about it. And she unearthed an interesting fact that I had not discovered in my reading and I think is worth noting on Romancing the Blog as it may apply to the blog readers here.
Since Harlequin does not register the copyright in many of their series line books, it may be possible that none of these authors will be eligible to recover damages under the settlement even if Google has digitized their work already. Apparently, if the work wasn’t registered with the Library of Congress/Copyright Office prior to January 5, 2009, an author can’t collect damages.
Granted, we are only talking about being out $60 bucks per book (with a limit of around $300 or so for all books claimed). Still, that would be a bummer.
Morning update: I apologize for blogging in a hurry last night but here’s a little more info on the subject. Clause 1.16 (b) of the settlement might in fact cover Harlequin series books as it reads “(b) on or before the Notice Commencement Date, was published or distributed to the public or made available for public access as a set of written or printed sheets of paper bound together in hard copy form under the authorization of the work’s U.S. copyright owner,”
The Notice of Class also does not specify that the copyright of the book must be registered.
It is, however, generally true that a book without an unregistered copyright cannot be the subject of damages in a court suit. In fact, a recent case in the second circuit, Reed Elsevier v. Muchnik, dealt with much the same situation.This case is being reviewed by the Supreme Court.
To make a long story short, if the Supreme Court affirms the Second Circuit’s understanding of the law in this case, the Google Settlement is invalid. Poof. It goes away.
If the Supreme Court does not affirm the Second Circuit’s holding, people who have unregistered copyrights will probably be able to be included in the class, and so should absolutely register and be able to collect a payment.
I would check with the Authors Guild if you are unsure of what to do but it sounds like you might want to file a claim for your series titles to be on the safe side.
And here’s another good website, Scrivener’s Error, that discusses it in detail.
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Alison Kent writes sexy, sassy, urban and hip contemporaries for Harlequin Blaze and action adventure stories starring sexy bad boys for Kensington Brava. If there’s a better career to be had, she doesn’t want to know about it. The one she has is almost too much fun to bear.
I wonder if the reasoning had to do with how long categories are in bookstores? Or if it relates to something else, like the series itself being copyrighted?
Interesting that a major player like this doesn’t register a lot of their copyrights. Too bad! I wonder if any of the individual authors did so on their own, which is what I did with VISIONS.
As a reader and a geek, I have to say that I am dissapointed by any author who really believes they are “damaged” by Google’s Book Project. The project, as originally envisioned, would have been a great benefit to society as a whole. It is the settlement that is causing damage to the cultural heritage we leave for future generations.
I believe your reading of the settlement agreement is incorrect. It does not cover unregistered works, and therefore the outcome of the Reed Elsevier case will not affect the settlement. Please see http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/6131, including the comments from class counsel at the bottom.