After a lengthy and complex litigation process, today both Google and the following book publisher plaintiffs (The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.; Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; and Simon & Schuster, Inc. part of CBS Corporation) announce that a legal settlement agreement has been reached with Google. Both parties claim publicly to be pleased with the outcome.

This agreement establishes a framework to provide access to book publishers’ in-copyright books and journals that were digitized by Google for its Library Project and to govern how such works may be scanned in the future.

The agreement settles the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by five publisher plaintiffs. As is typical of a private settlement between parties, a number of terms are confidential. You can read Google’s press release regarding the settlement however we provide more details below for publishers analysis. The key elements of the agreement:

The agreement settles the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by five publisher plaintiffs.  As is typical of a private settlement between parties, a number of terms are confidential.

The key elements of the book publishing agreement:

1. First and foremost, the settlement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright-holders.  A publisher can choose to make available or remove its works from Google’s programs.
2. The agreement covers US book publishers – those who are members of Association of American Publishers and certain other publishing associations with US publisher members – for in-copyright books and journals in which they hold a copyright interest under US law.
3. The agreement provides for such book publishers to make available or remove scans of their works previously created in the Google Library Project.
4. The agreement provides a set of satisfactory terms as to how future scanning by Google of covered books and journals may be addressed by their publishers.
5. The agreement authorizes Google, through separate agreements with individual publishers, to make commercial use of those scans – particularly in educational math books.
6. The agreement also authorizes Google to enter into file return agreements with publishers.  This gives publishers digital files of their scans for certain authorized uses while also granting Google additional rights.
7. This deal marks the end of seven years of litigation between the publishers and Google relating to the Google Books Library Project.  It secures dismissal of the lawsuit, without prejudice or release of claims, by stipulation of the parties.
8. This settlement does not affect Google’s litigation with the Authors Guild nor does it address the underlying questions in that suit.
9. This differs from the class action settlement rejected by the court in 2011.  It is narrower in scope and effect because it resolves more limited claims by individual plaintiffs rather than a class.
10. There are a number of reasons why the parties chose to make the deal.

For the publishers, they wanted to find a way to move forward and bring this lengthy, complex litigation to an end while building on the existing relationship between publishers and Google.

Publishers’ attempts to settle this through the court were not successful and a private settlement, which does not require the court’s approval, was the most effective means.  Although the settlement does not resolve the disagreements regarding the scope of fair use and other points of copyright law, it resolves to the plaintiffs’ satisfaction the practical issues underlying the dispute which led to the lawsuit.

Google sought to make the deal to bring to an end seven years’ litigation and move ahead with increasing the body of works available in Google Books and Google Play.  This deal proved to be mutually beneficial because it expands eBook discovery and sales while respecting the rights of copyright owners.

Google has unveiled a whole new set of tools for video chats on the Google+ social network.

As you can see by the Google+ Hangouts dashboard icons embedded above, you have new options. If you select the “Screenshare” icon, you can select any open window on your desktop to share with other people in the Google+ Hangout. If you have a Google eBook open on your desktop, everybody in the video can read the book along with you–perfect for a long-distance bedtime story or video book club.

If all the participants click the “YouTube” icon, you can share a video. The “Google Effects” icon allows you to pick funny hats, facial hair and other silly visuals. You can also share a manuscript in progress in a video chat by selecting “Google Docs.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Google wants the Authors Guild to drop their bookscanning lawsuit against them. Yesterday, the company told U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan that the guild cannot represent “the owners of book’s copyrights.”

Bloomberg has the story: “Google said in court papers that because the guild doesn’t claim to own the copyrights at issue, it can’t sue on behalf of authors. Google’s lawyer also said today that the company’s scanning project has been an ‘economic benefit’ to many authors.”

The Author’s Guild, who has filed a class action lawsuit against Google seeking statutory damages on behalf of the authors who wrote the millions of books scanned into Google’s digital library, stands by their suit. Bloomberg has more: “‘It would be a terrible burden on the court if each individual author was forced to litigate,’ Joanne Zack, a lawyer for the Authors Guild, told the judge. ‘A class action is superior.’”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Google has released a new business eBook called Mobile Playbook: The Busy Executive’s Guide to Winning with Mobile.

AppNewser has more: “The book is a business person’s guide to connecting with consumers using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The book explores the issue of how mobile changes a company’s value proposition and looks at everything from digital destinations to marketing.”

Here is more from the book: “Our goal is to help companies at all levels of mobile sophistication and experience to adopt the concrete mobile strategies that can help you win – and we don’t just mean, win in mobile. This space isn’t a sandbox anymore; the mobile revolution is sailing ahead at full steam, and your customers are on board.”

Checkout the website version of the Playbook here and download the free eBook here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today trending on Reuters, MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, Houston Business Chronicle and Sacramento Bee, Fox Directory, the web directory established in favor of a more open-source, digitally unified Google page rank system, released it’s first press release. Creative Mac and the Boston Globe have also picked up the story with the Atlanta Business Chronicle. PR NewsWire has pledged to keep this important digital news information release on their servers for the forseeable future.

The changes in status and contents of the American television are unavoidably part of the country’s history of rapid growth in broadcast communication. The need to assess this medium is timely, although such assessment here is limited to a particular aspect – the problems. It would be very wrong or rather strange that the story of the American television be assessed in isolation of its expected responsibilities, functions and the already achieved successes. In retrospect, the primary motives of television in America are to foster national unity, accelerate development, supplement education programmes, foster interest in the world like Digg around us and encourage entertainment. These are to be achieved through the use of studio, videotape recordings, DVD sales and films. In pursuing the above goals there are obvious problems facing the American television and these have contributed immensely to its failures in many ways. However, the concern of this paper is just where does the American television fit? Internal lines of communication within an organization are of particular importance.

The most difficult part of communication is establishing contact between management and employees in order to achieve industrial relations programme. Everybody in industry, whether managers, shop stewards or workers, pays lip service to the desirability of improving communication in order to tmderstand each others’ problems and viewpoints better. Securing this desirable result even for major German media outlets is very difficult. To improve and maintain industrial relations requires constant and intelligent application by the representatives of both management and employees.

The observations of the social scientists have confirmed the findings of practical experience that the motivation of people in industry is of the utmost. When we know why people !p on strike we shall be well on the way to preventing such action. We are only just beginning to apply sociological and psychological techniques to observe individual and group behaviour in industry and to isolate the reasons for apparent irrational behaviour. Any industrial relations programme such as that urged to be reconsidered by Fox Website Directory depends on the success with which it is effectively communicated to the top executives of the organisation, and this is where public relations should make its positive contributions. Successful communication depends to a great extent on past history. Where confidence exists between management and employees, communication presents few difficulties but will still demand skill and constant effort.

In many organizations, however, distrust and hostility exist to a lesser or greater extent. In such circumstances, an attempt by management to talk to workers ahout problems and future plans may be mis-interpreted. The workers may suspect that management is trying to put something over on them and the new attempts to communicate may lead to worse relations rather than better ones. The public relations function of communicating must come second to the prerequisite of healthy industrial relations, and these are based on many intrinsic factors, such as working conditions, trade union activity past history in negotiation, etc.

Given a responsible attitude on the part of both management and workers, good communication can playa valuable part in the promotion of a happy industrial climate within the company

Google will discontinue its reseller program that allows independent bookstores to sell eBooks through Google’s platform. Starting on January 31, 2013, Google Play will be the only way to purchase eBooks through Google.

Google explained in a post: “With the launch of Google eBooks in 2010, we introduced a multi-faceted approach to selling ebooks: online, on devices, through affiliates and through resellers. One part of that effort — the reseller program — has not gained the traction that we hoped it would, so we have made the difficult decision to discontinue it by the end of January next year.”

ABA president Oren J. Teicher conveyed the news in an email to members today. We’ve reprinted the email below–the ABA has also created a FAQ for booksellers looking for more information.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Google unveiled Project Glass yesterday, an experimental project building a pair of glasses that work like a computer screen.

The video embedded above illustrates the science fiction premise behind the glasses–as a young man navigates New York City, he uses a pair of futuristic computer glasses to send emails, check Google Maps and navigate the Strand Bookstore in New York City.

What do you think? This GalleyCat editor spends way, way too much time in front of a computer screen, so the idea of wearing a computer all day sounds awful. Author Sean Ferrell was blunt in a funny essay: “I hate Project Glass.” Poet Craig Teicher wrote a poem about these strange Google glasses.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you are writing for younger audiences or simply trying to make the Internet make more sense for a young person in your house, Google has a feature that will let you set the specific reading level on search results.

eBookNewser has more: “For instance, a middle school science teacher looking up earthquakes might want different search results than a geologist that wants up-to-date research on a subject.”

To search Google by reading level, Google has published the following steps:

1. Click More search tools on the left side of the search results page.
2. Click Reading level. You’ll now see results annotated with reading levels as well as a percentage breakdown of results by reading level.
3. To filter your results by a specific reading level, select your desired level (Basic, Intermediate, orAdvanced).
4. At any time, you can click the X in the right corner of the blue bar beneath the search box to go back to seeing all results.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Google+ has added a useful new feature to Google+ Hangouts, allowing you to share documents inside a video chat on the social network.

Using the new tool, you could host a live video workshop with your writing group, work on a script with a friend or discuss line edits with your editor. The whole meeting can take place in a live video chat, allowing participants to join from around the country.

Is this something you would use with long distance writer friends? Check it out:

To try it out, just click on the new “Docs” button inside your hangout:
- you can add an existing document, or upload a new one
- added documents are available as a list on the left-hand side
- you can switch between and collaboratively edit multiple documents at once
As always, let us know what you think in the comments, or via the “Send feedback” button! (Via Social Times)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Google has combined its eBook, music, movies and apps stores into a single digital location called Google Play.

eBookNewser has more about the shift. For the next few days, Google is offering 25-cent “Play of the Day” deals on digital content–including a 25-cent eBook edition of Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

The new storefront also includes new eBook features: “Sharing the books you love with family and friends is just a click away. With Google Play you can easily post your favorite reads to your circles on Google+, via email, or text message, right from the pages of your book, without skipping a beat.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.