Over the last few weeks we've heard a number of questions about Books Search and specifically the Google Book Search settlement . We thought now would be a good chance to answer some of the most frequently-asked questions, as well as remind authors and publishers that they can visit the settlement Notice website for further information. But first, here's a quick overview of Book Search. Google Book Search allows you to search the content of books, like you search the Internet, creating new opportunities for discovery and unexpected encounter with books. Book Search can be a useful service to the academic in Berlin who is looking for a scholarly work; it can be an even more meaningful experience for someone in an area where libraries are few and far between. Through our Publisher Programme, publishers provide us with their books, which we scan and put online with a limited preview of the text. Through our Library Project, we index both in-copyright and out-of-copyright works scanned at our library partners in the U.S like Michigan, Princeton or Cornell University Library. Under this project, users are able to freely access the full content of out-of-copyright books; for those books that are in-copyright, users are able to discover books but can see at most snippets, i.e. very short extracts of the text and terms the user has searched for (see below). We are proud to be scanning public domain material at many of Europe's leading libraries. But the vast majority of books in the world--and in Book Search-- are both in-copyright and out-of-print. This means they are difficult to find in bookshops and sometimes even in libraries. As a result, it's this last category of books that has been the subject of multiple public and private initiatives around the world, all of which have hoped to promote the great wealth of culture and knowledge "locked" in out-of-print works. The Google Book Search settlement is just one of these initiatives, and opens up millions of books to users in the U.S. The settlement between an international class of authors and publishers and Google unlocks access to millions of books in the United States. With the Settlement, readers in the U.S. will now be able to search, preview and buy online access to the books that are the hardest to find -- those that are still in copyright but are no longer in print. Most of the world's books fall into this category. They are not sold through bookstores or held on most library shelves. The Settlement offers additional benefits to further improve access to books for visually impaired people or support research in the US. In addition to expanding access to out-of-print books , authors and publishers who are part of our Partner Program will have the ability to sell online access to their in-print books through Google Book Search, readers will have even more options to access in-print books. For users outside the U.S., the Google Book Search experience won't change unless rightsholders specifically authorize additional uses of their books outside the United States. As always, if the book is in the public domain, any users will be able to download the whole book for free. While the Google Book Search settlement will only allow for improved access in the U.S., Google is committed to working with European rightsholders to develop similar solutions that are appropriate for the European market. Authors and publishers who have questions can visit the settlement Notice website . Posted by Antoine Aubert, European copyright policy manager
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