The New York Times has reported that the three tech giants are planning to join efforts to block the court settlement of a 2005 copyright-infringement class-action suit that would give Google the right to digitize, host, and sell ads against millions of published works.
The full settlement is nothing if not complex. At its core, however, is a mechanism that would allow Google to pay $125m to establish an independent Book Rights Registry to resolve copyright claims from authors and publishers in conjunction with Google's scanning of their works for its Book Search project.
Copyright holders who sign up with the Registry would receive a portion of Google's future Book Search profits, and if Google has already scanned their books, they could receive a cash payment.
One of the stickier parts of the multi-tenacled settlement, however, is that it gives Google the right to scan and host so-called "orphan books" - that is, books whose copyright holders can't be found.
Depending upon whom you ask, the settlement is either a breakthrough in knowledge distribution or a monopolistic grab of the intellectual wealth of nations.
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