Is the Amended Google Books Settlement an Improvement for Copyright Owners Outside of the United States

Abstract

Topic of this paper is the Google Books Settlement. It discusses the copyright issues of copyright owners outside the United States concerning this settlement and concerning the amended settlement through using the examples of Germany and New Zealand. It shows that the amended agreement provides significant disadvantages for foreign rights holders. The amended settlement agreement (ASA) is in some points even worse for foreign copyright holders compared to the original settlement as it creates legal uncertainty. The scope of application of the ASA is linked to the place of publication of books. However, the agreement does not provide a sufficient definition of the place of publication and it is hard to know whether a book has been registered with the United States Copyright Office, especially for foreign rights holders. Finally, the paper criticises that both the original and the amended agreement do not represent foreign authors properly. As a result, the paper concludes that the ASA violates different international treaties such as the TRIPS and the Berne Convention. Compared to the original agreement, the ASA is a burden especially for foreign rights holders