Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, has announced an agreement with French publishing house La Martiniere Groupe for the scanning of books that are no longer on sale but still protected by copyright. The deal is the second major agreement that Google has signed with a publishing house, following a controversy over its digital library project.
Under the latest deal, Google and La Martiniere will jointly set up a catalogue of books to be scanned that are no longer sold by the publisher. The publisher will decide which books Google is allowed to scan, and which of the scanned books can then be sold on Google's Ebooks platform. The two groups will reportedly share any revenue generated through a sale. According to a spokeswoman for Google France, the bulk of the revenue will go to the publisher.
In a joint statement issued by Google and La Martiniere, the companies have said that the agreement puts an end to the legal action that the publisher launched against the former in 2006.
In 2010, Google announced a similar deal with Hachette Livre, a unit of Lagardere SCA. The terms of the deal with La Martiniere are similar to the deal with Hachette Livre. The deal was then seen as setting a standard for how publishing companies can make money via the digitalisation of books still under their copyright protection but no longer sold in stores.
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