The US Authors Guild and a group of publishers announced on Tuesday that they have reached a settlement with Google in a lawsuit over its Google Book Search initiative.
The settlement enables authors and publishers to receive compensation for online access to their works.
Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, called the settlement "the biggest book deal in US publishing history".
Google is digitising works from many major libraries, including the New York Public Library and those at the universities of Stanford and Harvard, and is making those texts searchable on pages with advertisements.
The Authors Guild, which represents more than 8,000 authors, sued Google in September 2005, alleging that the company's digitising initiative amounted to "massive" copyright infringement. Five large publishers filed a separate lawsuit as representatives of the Association of American Publishers.
Under the terms of the settlement, Google has agreed to pay the authors and publishers $125m (£80m). The company will also be responsible for selling access to copyrighted works in its repository. Most of the revenues from such access would go to the authors and publishers.
Currently, users of Google Book Search are able to view snippets of books online. The settlement agreement allows Google to make whole pages of copyright works available to online searchers. Users will be able to preview up to 20 percent of a book and purchase the book if they choose to, said David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer for Google.
All public libraries in the US will be offered a free online portal to Google's digitised collection, said Aiken, and patrons will be able to print an unlimited number of pages for a per-page fee. Google will also be offering institutional subscriptions to colleges and universities. Google Book Search services available outside the US will remain the same, Drummond said.
