Germans want Google Booksearch-deal

Thu 22 January 2009 09:51, Editors

It took the American Publishers Association two years to come to an agreement with Google about Google Books. Google paid 125 million dollars to be able to scan now seven million books. In Germany the German Authors Guild, Verwertungsgesellschaft (VG) Wort, wants a similar deal.

It is not clear how much money Google will have to pay the Germans. The Authors Guild works together with the Swiss Bookstore Association. Google now has several ten thousands books scanned and indexed in Germany.

“We want to make sure no German author or publisher loses his rights,” says Robert Staats of Verwertungsgesellschaft (VG) Wort. Olaf Zimmerman of the German ‘Kulurrates’ adds: “Even for the internet it must not be possible that something is published without charge.”

The settlement the Authors Guild is after will be an interesting indication of what Google will be able to do in Europe with Booksearch. This is yet another good example of the complexity in Europe and why Google aims first and for all at the US. Different laws, different languages and different issues.

It’s remarkable though that Google announces the deal they made in October on the German Booksearch-page as if the deal is also for Germany, when the deal is only for the US-based books.

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