UK action group to lobby book trade against Google settlement

Scales An action group has been set up to campaign for the rights of authors in the face of the proposed 'Google Book Settlement'.

Action on Authors' Rights describes itself as a grassroots group set up to campaign in support of authors' rights.

A statement on its website criticises the alliance between Google and US publishers. It warns against repeating the mistake in the UK and calls upon UK authors, literary agents and authors resident in the UK to sign up to the cause.

"Google and its partners plan to use a settlement in a civil law case to overturn fundamental principles of copyright law. They are asking the court to approve a massive appropriation of rights from authors of printed books published in the US, UK, Canada and Australia."

"Digital publishing presents authors with new challenges – and new opportunities. It remains as important as ever that authors should retain in full their rights under copyright law to authorize all reproduction of their works and make the arrangements for publication they judge to be most appropriate."

The action group hits out at what it suggests could amount to a monopoly by a commercial concern, insisting such an agreement would hinder innovation and diminish the rights of authors and their agents to earn money from their works.

The Google book settlement has been gaining support in recent months in Europe with David Lammy, UK Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property leading government praise. The Digital Economy Bill now passing through Parliament contains provisions for compulsory copyright licensing.

Viviane Reding, the Brussels based European Commissioner for Information, Society and Media has also given the settlement personal approval.

In the world of writing, the Society of Authors, the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) have lined up to promote the Settlement alongside the multinational publishing corporations and the Authors Guild.

The action group insist this is not something that sits easy with writers: "Most professional authors with active careers who have looked into the detail of the Google Book Settlement have reacted with alarm and anxiety. Debate among them has focused chiefly on the best way to prevent Google Inc. from displaying or selling their books without authorization: whether it is better for authors to opt out and rely on copyright law, or register their books and invoke the provisions in the Settlement Agreement for having them removed."