Sep 1, 2009, 17:13 GMT
Brussels - European writers should follow the US lead and set up a Books Rights Registry in order to profit from the Internet and the rapidly-growing market for electronic books, an American best-selling author said Tuesday.
James Gleick, best known for his books explaining the intricacies of Chaos Theory, said such a registry would help protect their copyright and could even turn their out-of-print tomes into money- makers.
'Authors in Europe need to ensure their rights are protected and that any money is shared out among them,' said Gleick, who is also a board member of the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers.
The guild filed a class-action lawsuit against Google in 2005 over its plans to scan and reproduce millions of books on the Internet. But it agreed to a settlement last year granting the Internet giant's Google Books service greater access to copyrighted books.
Under the terms of the settlement, which will be outlined to European Union officials on Monday, the guild persuaded Google to also scan books that are still copyrighted but are no longer in print.
The aim is to bring millions of books that are no longer found in bookshops 'back to commercial life.'
'These millions of out-of-print book returns from limbo. Any money made from advertising or licensing fees will go partly to Google and mostly to the rights-holders,' said Gleick at a press event in Brussels organized by Google.
US authors of books that are digitized by Google are to receive 60 dollars plus 63 per cent of any revenue made by Google from the sale of the book or from ads linked to that book.
Reaching a similar agreement in Europe is trickier, however, as no common registry exists, at least in part due to language and bureaucratic barriers.
The issue is currently being considered by the European Union's executive arm in Brussels, the European Commission, which has in the meantime launched its own European collection of digitised books.
Google, which has so far scanned some 10 million titles, is currently negotiating deals with libraries in Italy and France.
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