As part of its ambitious book digitization project, Google has
been scanning the archives of several libraries, including the New
York Public Library, Stanford University, and Harvard University.
In 2005, Google was sued over this project by the Authors Guild and
five major publishers: McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin
Group, John Wiley & Sons and Simon & Schuster who claimed
that Google required their permission to scan books under their
control.
On Oct. 28, 2008, the parties announced a settlement in the
lawsuit. Google agreed to pay $125 million to create a Book Rights
Registry, to be controlled by authors and publishers, as well as to
settle past claims by authors and publishers. The settlement and
Book Rights Registry purportedly will establish an ongoing
revenue-sharing arrangement between the parties for content
purchased from Google's book search system. The registry to be
created would allow copyright holders to register their works in
order to receive
