Google reaches agreement with French publishers and authors over digitising of out-of-print books

Under the agreement Google will be able to offer electronic versions of out-of-print books through its services but French publishers and authors would "retain control over the commercial use" of their work, the company said.

French publishers can elect not to allow Google to digitise out-of-print works, according to the New York Times. Google is to make the material it is permitted to digitise available through its 'Google Play' store, whilst the agreement also allows the publishers to sell the digitised material through other avenues, according to the newspaper's report.

Google called the agreement a "win-win solution."

Out-of-print books are works that are copyright-protected but are either no longer being published or are not generally available to the public, aside from in libraries or via second-hand shops.

Google has caused worldwide consternation amongst authors and representative groups with its Google Books project, which has scanned in the contents of entire libraries. Google Books allows users to search for snippets of content to see if the publication has the information they are looking for. The company is still embroiled in a legal battle in the US over its digitising of authors' copyrighted works.

"Almost 75 percent of the world’s books are out-of-print and unavailable except to the lucky few who can find old copies in libraries," Philippe Colombet, strategic partner development manager of Google Books France, said in a company blog. "In order to make this treasure available to everyone, anywhere in the world, we digitised millions of out-of-print works in U.S. libraries."

"Until now, legal challenges, not only in France, but also in the United States, have kept us from realizing our goal. French authors and publishers sued us, separately, for copyright violations back in 2006. U.S. authors and publishers also sued. Although we reached an agreement with the American Author’s Guild and Association of American Publishers in 2008, a U.S. District court in New York last year rejected the agreement," he said.

"In France, however, we have found a way to move ahead. Both the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l’édition) and the French Author’s Association (Société des gens de lettres) have withdrawn their suits," said Colombet.

"In this win-win solution, publishers and authors retain control over the commercial use of their books – while at the same time, opening the possibility for out-of-print books to reach a wide audience. We remain hopeful of reaching a solution in the US allowing us to make the world's books searchable and discoverable online," Colombet said.

The French Publishers Association welcomed the agreement, according to a report by the BBC.

"This announcement marks a positive advance for updating France's print heritage under copyright and contributes to expanding the availability of digital books," it said in a statement, according to the BBC.

"The authors will be able to say yes or no to the indexing of their works," the Association's president Antoine Gallimard said. "It is now up to each publishing house to decide if it wants to sign a framework accord with Google on authorship rights or not."