NZ shunned in Google digitised book deal

New Zealand has been left out of a deal to digitise books with internet search and content provider Google, due to complications over copyright issues.

Google's directing engineer for the books project, Dan Clancy said the company was disappointed New Zealand books were not included in the settlement.

The company announced the reduced scope of the rights deal with publishers' organisations on Thursday, now covering just the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

The company also limited its scope to solely English texts, following formal complaints from France and Germany.

The Google Books settlement opened the way for the company to offer the works through Print-on-demand, by file or by subscription, he said.

However, New Zealand computer users weren't able to access the books in the same way those in North America could.

The company would still index New Zealand books, showing snippets from them and link its users to vendors or libraries, unless the rights holder had authorised otherwise, he said.

New Zealand authors and publishers could still seek individual agreements with Google, or ask to have their works taken down.

"Obviously we were disappointed to narrow the scope. We would have like to have the New Zealand books included," Dr Clancy said.

"However, we have always felt that with these international books, there would always have been an onus on us to reach out to the rights holders anyway."

The company already had over 30,000 books in its partner programme, and Dr Clancy believed other rights holders would be interested in being included.

If an author or rights holder's book had been scanned before May 5, they were eligible for a cash payment of between US$60 and US$300 ($82 and $410), he said.

In being paid, the rights holder was releasing the company from any action against it.

Director of the Digital Publishing Forum Martin Taylor said the settlement had come a long way and changed a great deal since it was initially proposed.

Essentially, the initial interpretation of the law meant a domestic United States issue - which would be handled by US civil courts - had been extended to the rest of the world.

He said New Zealand's exclusion from the settlement allowed for a New Zealand project to protect the country's literary heritage to be carried out, for the benefit of the people of this country.

"Really it is an opportunity for us to take what is good about Google Books and do it the right way," he said.

- NZPA