Today Google and French Publisher La Martiniere ended their five year legal battle. It originated when Google wanted to scan the books as part of its Google Books campaign, where it sought to scan all the books in existence. The French publisher then filed official charges in 2008 for $400,000 in damages and $10,000 each day the books were in the Google Books database. The two sides have now come an to agreement on what books it can scan and irons out the problems with the titles that have already been digitized.
Several thousand of the books are in the new agreement and while Google will scan the books, La Martiniere will garner cash via the revenue share model. No terms were divulged on how long the contract was signed for and how many books are involved total.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
