Google Book Settlement irish writers union

No Irish published books qualify

The latest phase of the Google settlement - the agreement between Google, authors and publishers with regard to works that the giant multinational has digitized - has created a problem for Irish writers.

While thousands of books by Irish authors have been scanned by Google, ever since the settlement was revised late last year Ireland is no longer included in it.

The option of availing of the settlement class achieved by our colleagues in the Authors Guild in America is only available for those works published in the UK, Canada or the USA.

The settlement was worth at least 43 euro per book scanned without permission and 63 per cent of any future revenues that Google obtains from their digitized version of the books.

Whether you agree with the settlement or not, every Irish writer should have the choice as to whether they want to sign up to it.

But, as matters currently stand many authors will have lost that right completely, others will be in the strange situation of being able to register only some of their works.

The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency moved quickly to address this problem and believes Ireland was excluded by oversight: it was not appreciated at the time the settlement was amended that Irish publications do not generally come out in a separate edition for the UK.

So, if the UK is included in the settlement, Ireland should be too.

In this regard, the IWU backs the ICLA and believes Irish publishers should do the same.

Regardless of whether you want to have your works available via some future Google platform or not, Irish copyright holders should all have the option at this stage of deciding if they want to sign up to the settlement.

============

Judge rejects Amazon request over Google Settlement

A New York court judge, on December 3, 2009, rejected Amazon's request that he withdraw preliminary approval of a revised Google Books Settlement.

In a memorandum filed with the Southern District of New York United States District Court, Amazon said the ruling was made without the benefit of opposing viewpoints.

Presiding judge Denny Chin said he planned to conduct a thorough fairness analysis of the settlement at the fairness hearing on February 18, 2010.

He said Amazon could argue its case then.

Amazon is part of the Open Book Alliance, which opposes the agreement between Google and US publishers and authors.

Chin granted preliminary approval on November 19, 2009 of an amended settlement in the Google Book Settlement case.

As a result, the deadline to claim books and inserts for cash payments was extended to March 31, 2011.

The original deal between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers was to settle a suit brought against Google Book Search in 2005 for allegedly profiting illegally by scanning books.

The settlement provided that Google would pay $125m to cover copyright infringements it had already committed by scanning books online.

The settlement would give writers and publishers some 63 per cent of future revenues generated by sales of digital books and other income, while Google would keep the remaining 37 per cent.

In the amended settlement, the definition of books was narrowed. As a consequence, many class members under the original settlement are no longer class members under the amended settlement.

Rightsholders who are included in the amended settlement class must have had their works published and registered with the United States Copyright Office by January 5, 2009 to be included in the amended settlement.

If the works are not United States works, they are included if they were published by January 5, 2009 and either were registered with the U.S. Copyright Office by that date or their place of publication was in Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia.

Authors may be members of the amended settlement class even if they do not reside in the United States, Canada, the UK or Australia. If the work meets the criteria above, then the author is a member of the amended settlement class regardless of where they reside and regardless of where else their work may also have been published.

A work will be considered to have a place of publication in Canada, the UK or Australia if its printed copy contains information indicating that the place of publication was in one of those three countries.

From its inception, the Registry will use settlement funds to attempt to locate rightsholders.

The amended settlement provides that unclaimed funds owed to rightsholders will not be used by the registry for general operations or reserves and will not be distributed to claiming rightsholders.

After unclaimed funds are held for five years, the Registry, in collaboration with organizations in Canada, the UK and Australia, and in consultation with the fiduciary, may use up to 25 per cent of the funds for the sole purpose of locating rightsholders

Remaining unclaimed funds will be held for the rightsholders for at least 10 years, after which the Registry, subject to fiduciary approval as to timing, may apply to the court for permission to distribute unclaimed funds to literacy-based charities in the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia.

Under the amended settlement Google will have an unlimited right to discount the list price of books for consumer purchase, so long as it continues to pay 63 per cent of the undiscounted List price to the registry for rightsholders.

For detail, see the website:

============

Settlement is on hold

Parties to the Google Settlement agreed to extend the date for completing a Claim Form to be eligible for cash payments from January 5, 2010 to June 5, 2010.

A US court set November 9, 2009 as the date for the filing of an amended Settlement Agreement and a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement as amended.

The Google Book Settlement is on hold following a delay in an American court hearing in the case.

The judge overseeing Google's agreement with American publishers to digitise millions of books called off a planned October 7, 2009 hearing into the €125m deal.

On September 24, the Court issued an order stating that the Final Fairness Hearing would be rescheduled for a later date in light of the parties' plans to modify the Settlement Agreement.

Google, Inc, the defendant did not oppose the motion.

The plaintiffs' motion was based on ongoing negotiations with the US Department of Justice that, according to plaintiffs, will result in significant changes to the existing settlement agreement.

The plaintiffs, The Author's Guild et al, suggested that, in light of the negotiations with the department, they would not seek approval of the current settlement.

"To continue on the current schedule would put the Court in a position of reviewing and having participants at the hearing speak to the original Settlement Agreement, which will not be the subject of a motion for final approval," said the Court order signed by New York district judge Denny Chin.

"The current settlement agreement raises significant issues, as demonstrated not only by the number of objections, but also by the fact; that the objectors include countries, states, non-profit organizations, and prominent authors and law professors. Clearly, fair concerns have been raised," he said in the order.

He said: "On the other hand, the proposed settlement would offer many benefits to society as recognised by supporters of the settlement as well as Department of Justice. It would appear that if a fair and reasonable settlement can be reached, the public would benefit."

The Court was to conduct a status conference on October 7 to determine how to proceed with the case as expeditiously as possible, as the case has now been pending for more than four years.

The Court was not to hear arguments from any objectors, supporters, or amici -- including these who emailed requests to be heard --at this conference, though they were free to attend.

For detail, see the website

============

Google settlement changes

The Booksellers Association has called for UK publishers to prevent Google from commercially exploiting their titles online until it is clearer how the digital market will develop.

Meanwhile, on April 28, 2009, the federal court overseeing the Google Book Search Copyright Settlement in the United States, extended the opt-out deadline from May 5, 2009 to September 4, 2009.

The extended opt-out deadline is the new date by which class members must decide whether to remain in the settlement class and receive the benefits of the settlement, object to the settlement, or opt out of the settlement.

The change in the opt-out deadline has caused the final fairness hearing date to be rescheduled, from June 11, 2009 to October 7, 2009.

This is the new date of the hearing for the court to consider whether to grant final approval of the settlement. All other deadlines and key dates in the case remain the same, including May 5, 2009 as the date on or before which a book must have been scanned in order to be entitled to a cash payment.

Online claims-filing and detailed information about the Settlement are available online
in 36 languages.

But, the Booksellers Association repeated its warning that the settlement between Google and the US Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers results in Google being "handed a monopoly", with competitors "placed at a considerable disadvantage."

BA chief executive Tim Godfray, in an April 28, 2009 letter to The Bookseller, said: "This might be an agreement signed by US publishers, US authors and Google, but it will affect almost all of us in the UK book trade." Under the terms of the settlement UK publishers can claim titles already scanned in by Google, and then ask the search engine to remove access to them.

The BA's letter came after Google, the US Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers requested a two-month delay to the resolution of the Google Settlement to allow those affected "more time to consider their rights and options".

Some US authors have called for a four-month postponement.

The settlement will give Google the right to sell content posted online.

Institutions in the US will be able obtain collective licenses to enable them to access millions of titles.

Under the terms of the settlement, agreed between Google and the Association of American Publishers and US Authors' Guild in October, Google agreed to pay $60 per title for in-print books it already digitized.

But Godfray said the Booksellers Association is not one of the classes in the legal action.

“So here we have a case of three organizations in the US making decisions that will affect not only booksellers in the US, but in the UK and other parts of the world. It is difficult not to take the view that Google are being handed a monopoly and competitors will be placed at a considerable disadvantage," he said.

So far, Google has scanned in an estimated seven million books and continues to add more to their digital database.

BA letter to The Bookseller.

© irish writers union may 2009
=====================
Below are the briefing notes on the settlement issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency
see disclaimer

WHY THE GOOGLE SETTLEMENT MATTERS TO YOU

Nearly every book published before January 5th, 2009 is covered by the Google settlement agreement.
As a copyright owner, you should understand how the Google Book Settlement may affect you.
We strongly urge you to review the short summary below.

Where did it all begin?
In 2004, Google first announced its intention to undertake a massive project to digitize books and make them available to users. Academic libraries, including Harvard and Oxford, entered into partnerships with Google to digitize the libraries' collections of works. However, in many cases the digitization was done without the permission of the copyright owner.

In 2005, the Authors Guild of America and certain authors and publisher representatives of the Association of American Publishers separately sued Google for copyright infringement.

In 2008, the parties reached a settlement agreement, which, if approved by the court in a hearing scheduled for June 11th 2009, may affect almost every book in the world, and consequently, almost every copyright owner (creator, publisher, heir or other rightsholder) who has copyright in one or more books. In fact, the settlement notice advised copyright owners to "assume that you own a U.S. copyright interest in your book". If this applies to you, you are considered part of the settlement class for this agreement.

What does the Settlement Agreement cover?
The settlement would allow Google, on a non-exclusive basis, to digitize nearly every book ever published before January 5th, 2009. This is literally millions of works, and most likely will include your works.
If you are part of the settlement class for this agreement, you have two options:

OPTION ONE: BE PART OF THE SETTLEMENT
As a part of the settlement, Google must pay out a total of US $125million.
This includes US $34.5million to fund and establish a Book Rights Registry, a non-profit entity established to create and maintain a database of copyright owners and their works locate and distribute payments to copyright owners, assist in resolving disputes between rightsholders, and represent the interests of rightsholders with respect to the settlement and other commercial arrangements.
Google must also pay a minimum of US $45million to the Registry to fund cash payments to eligible rightsholders, or at least US $60 per book digitized. by Google by May 5th 2009. To be eligible for the cash payments you must file a claim for your books by January 5th, 2010. A claim form is available online.

You are not eligible for the cash payments if you opt-out by May 5th 2009 or remove your books from the settlement by April 5th 2011, unless your work has not yet been digitized.

This settlement entitles Google to:
• index your work
• display up to 20% of your work
• display short excerpts of your work
• display bibliographic content; and
• allow printing, copying and pasting, and annotations of your entire work, at a fee,
and all subject to varying limitations.

Through the Book Rights Registry, Google will pay copyright owners 63% of all revenues earned for specific commercial uses. To receive revenues from these future income streams, you must submit a claim form for your books, although this may be done at a later date.

Google can sell subscriptions to the digital library to institutions, such as colleges and universities, sell online access to books to individual consumers, sell advertising on pages from books, and make other uses or create new revenue models, such as a print-on-demand service. Google's commercial projects may provide you with a new distribution channel and income stream. Depending on the circumstances, either the author, the publisher or both together will be able to instruct Google as to whether a book is to be part of all, some or none of Google's commercial offerings and, at times, set some pricing options for the use of the book in Google's programs.

Google will also be able to provide free public access to the digital library to libraries and colleges, on a restricted basis, and allow your work to be used for non-consumptive research, again with certain limitations.

OPTION TWO: OPT OUT OF THE SETTLEMENT
If you do not want to participate in the settlement you must opt out of the settlement by May 5th 2009. By opting out, you will retain control over your works and you will have the right to sue Google for any infringement of your copyright. If you want to participate in Google's Book Search program even though you have opted out of the settlement, you may still be able to do so through Google's Publisher Partner program.
If you make neither a claim nor opt out of the settlement agreement, your works will automatically be bound by the settlement.

What isn't covered?
The settlement agreement does not cover the works of copyright owners who have chosen to enter into separate agreements with Google, through Google's Partner Program. The settlement does not cover works that were first published in the United States but were not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as of January 5th 2009. The settlement does not cover works in the public domain, U.S. government publications, pictorial works (such as photographs, illustrations, except illustrations in children's books, maps and paintings) contained in books. If your books are published after January 5th 2009, or you are a copyright owner of periodicals or sheet music, your work is not covered by the settlement agreement.

ICLA, the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, is mandated to protect and advance the interests of Irish authors and publishers who have legal rights in copyright protected works that are subject to reproduction. As part of this continuing responsibility to you, ICLA has volunteered to work with the notice providers for the Google settlement to ensure that you receive proper notice of the settlement.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this document is intended to be of legal or business strategic advice. You are encouraged to consult the official Google Book Settlement documents, which are available at www.googlebooksettlement.com and to consult with a lawyer for advice on your rights.

IMPORTANT DATES:
January 5th 2009: Nearly every book published before January 5th 2009 is covered by the settlement agreement.

May 5th 2009: Google must pay a cash payment for every work digitised before May 5th 2009 or which Google reasonably anticipates will be digitised in the near future.

May 5th 2009: If you wish to preserve your rights to sue Google for infringement, you must opt out of the Google settlement by May 5th 2009.

January 5th 2010: If you wish to claim a cash payment for works already digitised by Google, you must complete a "cash-payment books" form by January 5th 2010.

April 5th 2011: If you want Google to delete your book from all servers, you must make a removal request by April 5th 2011.

home aims benefits committee events faq google obituary plunkett join links contract membersites news plr reviewing tax

Where writers matter	Irish Writers Union Chomhar na Scribhneoiri	*Google book settlement*
This is the website of the Irish Writers' Union, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. 086 233 00 84 or email The website is edited by Lissa Oliver	No Irish published books qualify The latest phase of the Google settlement - the agreement between Google, authors and publishers with regard to works that the giant multinational has digitized - has created a problem for Irish writers. While thousands of books by Irish authors have been scanned by Google, ever since the settlement was revised late last year Ireland is no longer included in it. The option of availing of the settlement class achieved by our colleagues in the Authors Guild in America is only available for those works published in the UK, Canada or the USA. The settlement was worth at least 43 euro per book scanned without permission and 63 per cent of any future revenues that Google obtains from their digitized version of the books. Whether you agree with the settlement or not, every Irish writer should have the choice as to whether they want to sign up to it. But, as matters currently stand many authors will have lost that right completely, others will be in the strange situation of being able to register only some of their works. The Irish Copyright Licensing Agency moved quickly to address this problem and believes Ireland was excluded by oversight: it was not appreciated at the time the settlement was amended that Irish publications do not generally come out in a separate edition for the UK. So, if the UK is included in the settlement, Ireland should be too. In this regard, the IWU backs the ICLA and believes Irish publishers should do the same. Regardless of whether you want to have your works available via some future Google platform or not, Irish copyright holders should all have the option at this stage of deciding if they want to sign up to the settlement. ============ Judge rejects Amazon request over Google Settlement A New York court judge, on December 3, 2009, rejected Amazon's request that he withdraw preliminary approval of a revised Google Books Settlement. In a memorandum filed with the Southern District of New York United States District Court, Amazon said the ruling was made without the benefit of opposing viewpoints. Presiding judge Denny Chin said he planned to conduct a thorough fairness analysis of the settlement at the fairness hearing on February 18, 2010. He said Amazon could argue its case then. Amazon is part of the Open Book Alliance, which opposes the agreement between Google and US publishers and authors. Chin granted preliminary approval on November 19, 2009 of an amended settlement in the Google Book Settlement case. As a result, the deadline to claim books and inserts for cash payments was extended to March 31, 2011. The original deal between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers was to settle a suit brought against Google Book Search in 2005 for allegedly profiting illegally by scanning books. The settlement provided that Google would pay $125m to cover copyright infringements it had already committed by scanning books online. The settlement would give writers and publishers some 63 per cent of future revenues generated by sales of digital books and other income, while Google would keep the remaining 37 per cent. In the amended settlement, the definition of books was narrowed. As a consequence, many class members under the original settlement are no longer class members under the amended settlement. Rightsholders who are included in the amended settlement class must have had their works published and registered with the United States Copyright Office by January 5, 2009 to be included in the amended settlement. If the works are not United States works, they are included if they were published by January 5, 2009 and either were registered with the U.S. Copyright Office by that date or their place of publication was in Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia. Authors may be members of the amended settlement class even if they do not reside in the United States, Canada, the UK or Australia. If the work meets the criteria above, then the author is a member of the amended settlement class regardless of where they reside and regardless of where else their work may also have been published. A work will be considered to have a place of publication in Canada, the UK or Australia if its printed copy contains information indicating that the place of publication was in one of those three countries. From its inception, the Registry will use settlement funds to attempt to locate rightsholders. The amended settlement provides that unclaimed funds owed to rightsholders will not be used by the registry for general operations or reserves and will not be distributed to claiming rightsholders. After unclaimed funds are held for five years, the Registry, in collaboration with organizations in Canada, the UK and Australia, and in consultation with the fiduciary, may use up to 25 per cent of the funds for the sole purpose of locating rightsholders Remaining unclaimed funds will be held for the rightsholders for at least 10 years, after which the Registry, subject to fiduciary approval as to timing, may apply to the court for permission to distribute unclaimed funds to literacy-based charities in the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia. Under the amended settlement Google will have an unlimited right to discount the list price of books for consumer purchase, so long as it continues to pay 63 per cent of the undiscounted List price to the registry for rightsholders. For detail, see the website: ============ Settlement is on hold Parties to the Google Settlement agreed to extend the date for completing a Claim Form to be eligible for cash payments from January 5, 2010 to June 5, 2010. A US court set November 9, 2009 as the date for the filing of an amended Settlement Agreement and a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement as amended. The Google Book Settlement is on hold following a delay in an American court hearing in the case. The judge overseeing Google's agreement with American publishers to digitise millions of books called off a planned October 7, 2009 hearing into the €125m deal. On September 24, the Court issued an order stating that the Final Fairness Hearing would be rescheduled for a later date in light of the parties' plans to modify the Settlement Agreement. Google, Inc, the defendant did not oppose the motion. The plaintiffs' motion was based on ongoing negotiations with the US Department of Justice that, according to plaintiffs, will result in significant changes to the existing settlement agreement. The plaintiffs, The Author's Guild et al, suggested that, in light of the negotiations with the department, they would not seek approval of the current settlement. "To continue on the current schedule would put the Court in a position of reviewing and having participants at the hearing speak to the original Settlement Agreement, which will not be the subject of a motion for final approval," said the Court order signed by New York district judge Denny Chin. "The current settlement agreement raises significant issues, as demonstrated not only by the number of objections, but also by the fact; that the objectors include countries, states, non-profit organizations, and prominent authors and law professors. Clearly, fair concerns have been raised," he said in the order. He said: "On the other hand, the proposed settlement would offer many benefits to society as recognised by supporters of the settlement as well as Department of Justice. It would appear that if a fair and reasonable settlement can be reached, the public would benefit." The Court was to conduct a status conference on October 7 to determine how to proceed with the case as expeditiously as possible, as the case has now been pending for more than four years. The Court was not to hear arguments from any objectors, supporters, or amici -- including these who emailed requests to be heard --at this conference, though they were free to attend. For detail, see the website ============ Google settlement changes The Booksellers Association has called for UK publishers to prevent Google from commercially exploiting their titles online until it is clearer how the digital market will develop. Meanwhile, on April 28, 2009, the federal court overseeing the Google Book Search Copyright Settlement in the United States, extended the opt-out deadline from May 5, 2009 to September 4, 2009. The extended opt-out deadline is the new date by which class members must decide whether to remain in the settlement class and receive the benefits of the settlement, object to the settlement, or opt out of the settlement. The change in the opt-out deadline has caused the final fairness hearing date to be rescheduled, from June 11, 2009 to October 7, 2009. This is the new date of the hearing for the court to consider whether to grant final approval of the settlement. All other deadlines and key dates in the case remain the same, including May 5, 2009 as the date on or before which a book must have been scanned in order to be entitled to a cash payment. Online claims-filing and detailed information about the Settlement are available online in 36 languages. But, the Booksellers Association repeated its warning that the settlement between Google and the US Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers results in Google being "handed a monopoly", with competitors "placed at a considerable disadvantage." BA chief executive Tim Godfray, in an April 28, 2009 letter to The Bookseller, said: "This might be an agreement signed by US publishers, US authors and Google, but it will affect almost all of us in the UK book trade." Under the terms of the settlement UK publishers can claim titles already scanned in by Google, and then ask the search engine to remove access to them. The BA's letter came after Google, the US Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers requested a two-month delay to the resolution of the Google Settlement to allow those affected "more time to consider their rights and options". Some US authors have called for a four-month postponement. The settlement will give Google the right to sell content posted online. Institutions in the US will be able obtain collective licenses to enable them to access millions of titles. Under the terms of the settlement, agreed between Google and the Association of American Publishers and US Authors' Guild in October, Google agreed to pay $60 per title for in-print books it already digitized. But Godfray said the Booksellers Association is not one of the classes in the legal action. “So here we have a case of three organizations in the US making decisions that will affect not only booksellers in the US, but in the UK and other parts of the world. It is difficult not to take the view that Google are being handed a monopoly and competitors will be placed at a considerable disadvantage," he said. So far, Google has scanned in an estimated seven million books and continues to add more to their digital database. BA letter to The Bookseller. © irish writers union may 2009 ===================== Below are the briefing notes on the settlement issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency see disclaimer WHY THE GOOGLE SETTLEMENT MATTERS TO YOU Nearly every book published before January 5th, 2009 is covered by the Google settlement agreement. As a copyright owner, you should understand how the Google Book Settlement may affect you. We strongly urge you to review the short summary below. Where did it all begin? In 2004, Google first announced its intention to undertake a massive project to digitize books and make them available to users. Academic libraries, including Harvard and Oxford, entered into partnerships with Google to digitize the libraries' collections of works. However, in many cases the digitization was done without the permission of the copyright owner. In 2005, the Authors Guild of America and certain authors and publisher representatives of the Association of American Publishers separately sued Google for copyright infringement. In 2008, the parties reached a settlement agreement, which, if approved by the court in a hearing scheduled for June 11th 2009, may affect almost every book in the world, and consequently, almost every copyright owner (creator, publisher, heir or other rightsholder) who has copyright in one or more books. In fact, the settlement notice advised copyright owners to "assume that you own a U.S. copyright interest in your book". If this applies to you, you are considered part of the settlement class for this agreement. What does the Settlement Agreement cover? The settlement would allow Google, on a non-exclusive basis, to digitize nearly every book ever published before January 5th, 2009. This is literally millions of works, and most likely will include your works. If you are part of the settlement class for this agreement, you have two options: OPTION ONE: BE PART OF THE SETTLEMENT As a part of the settlement, Google must pay out a total of US $125million. This includes US $34.5million to fund and establish a Book Rights Registry, a non-profit entity established to create and maintain a database of copyright owners and their works locate and distribute payments to copyright owners, assist in resolving disputes between rightsholders, and represent the interests of rightsholders with respect to the settlement and other commercial arrangements. Google must also pay a minimum of US $45million to the Registry to fund cash payments to eligible rightsholders, or at least US $60 per book digitized. by Google by May 5th 2009. To be eligible for the cash payments you must file a claim for your books by January 5th, 2010. A claim form is available online. You are not eligible for the cash payments if you opt-out by May 5th 2009 or remove your books from the settlement by April 5th 2011, unless your work has not yet been digitized. This settlement entitles Google to: • index your work • display up to 20% of your work • display short excerpts of your work • display bibliographic content; and • allow printing, copying and pasting, and annotations of your entire work, at a fee, and all subject to varying limitations. Through the Book Rights Registry, Google will pay copyright owners 63% of all revenues earned for specific commercial uses. To receive revenues from these future income streams, you must submit a claim form for your books, although this may be done at a later date. Google can sell subscriptions to the digital library to institutions, such as colleges and universities, sell online access to books to individual consumers, sell advertising on pages from books, and make other uses or create new revenue models, such as a print-on-demand service. Google's commercial projects may provide you with a new distribution channel and income stream. Depending on the circumstances, either the author, the publisher or both together will be able to instruct Google as to whether a book is to be part of all, some or none of Google's commercial offerings and, at times, set some pricing options for the use of the book in Google's programs. Google will also be able to provide free public access to the digital library to libraries and colleges, on a restricted basis, and allow your work to be used for non-consumptive research, again with certain limitations. OPTION TWO: OPT OUT OF THE SETTLEMENT If you do not want to participate in the settlement you must opt out of the settlement by May 5th 2009. By opting out, you will retain control over your works and you will have the right to sue Google for any infringement of your copyright. If you want to participate in Google's Book Search program even though you have opted out of the settlement, you may still be able to do so through Google's Publisher Partner program. If you make neither a claim nor opt out of the settlement agreement, your works will automatically be bound by the settlement. What isn't covered? The settlement agreement does not cover the works of copyright owners who have chosen to enter into separate agreements with Google, through Google's Partner Program. The settlement does not cover works that were first published in the United States but were not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as of January 5th 2009. The settlement does not cover works in the public domain, U.S. government publications, pictorial works (such as photographs, illustrations, except illustrations in children's books, maps and paintings) contained in books. If your books are published after January 5th 2009, or you are a copyright owner of periodicals or sheet music, your work is not covered by the settlement agreement. ICLA, the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, is mandated to protect and advance the interests of Irish authors and publishers who have legal rights in copyright protected works that are subject to reproduction. As part of this continuing responsibility to you, ICLA has volunteered to work with the notice providers for the Google settlement to ensure that you receive proper notice of the settlement. DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this document is intended to be of legal or business strategic advice. You are encouraged to consult the official Google Book Settlement documents, which are available at www.googlebooksettlement.com and to consult with a lawyer for advice on your rights. IMPORTANT DATES: January 5th 2009: Nearly every book published before January 5th 2009 is covered by the settlement agreement. May 5th 2009: Google must pay a cash payment for every work digitised before May 5th 2009 or which Google reasonably anticipates will be digitised in the near future. May 5th 2009: If you wish to preserve your rights to sue Google for infringement, you must opt out of the Google settlement by May 5th 2009. January 5th 2010: If you wish to claim a cash payment for works already digitised by Google, you must complete a "cash-payment books" form by January 5th 2010. April 5th 2011: If you want Google to delete your book from all servers, you must make a removal request by April 5th 2011. home aims benefits committee events faq google obituary plunkett join links contract membersites news plr reviewing tax	DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this document is intended to be of legal or business strategic advice. You are encouraged to consult the official Google Book Settlement documents, which are available online and to consult with a lawyer for advice on your rights.
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