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Authors Get $60 Per Book, 63 Percent Of Ad Revenue In Google Book Settlement

This story was written by Tameka Kee.


*Google* settled its long-standing Book Search and scanning lawsuit last October for $125 million, and now affected authors and publishers have begun submitting claims for compensation via a special site. Claimants are eligble for about $60 per scanned bookand 63 percent of any ad revenue Google (NSDQ: GOOG) generates from ads running against copyrighted material. Google is required to notify affected authors, publishers and their heirs that they may be eligible for payment as part of the settlement; CNET reports that the company has published the notice in 218 countries and 72 languages.

As TechCrunch notes, it's not that bad a dealsince the books named in the suit have already been out-of-print. And since Google has increasingly incorporated Book Search results into everyday searches, the ad share portion of the settlement represents an ongoing revenue stream. The search giant has been digitizing books since 2005, and announced that it was adding magazines to the mix in December.


By Tameka Kee

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