As Nudie would say "Don't feel like the Lone Ranger!" Yep, misery loves company, and I'm not the only author that felt raped by Google Books.
There is this big ole ugly class action lawsuit, which is pending settlement. Google "Author Google Lawsuit" and you'll get bombarded with information. If you are an actual Author there won't be a whole lotta info here you can actually use -- unless of course you like to read . . . and if you are in fact an Author (capital A if you are published and have had "Author" under your name on a Book Festival name tag) you should be fairly proficient at reading, but more prone to writing for fun and hopefully profit -- if you get my drift.
So let me summarize the lawsuit for you. You see, that used to be my job. I used to work for a class action law firm. You may have received an email from your publisher with a link like this (oops, Google doesn't really give you a good link here . . . even the claims administrator website does a poor job hooking a class member up with the 411), anyway if you are anything like my co-writer Jamie Nudie you would forward the email to me with the message "What the HELL is this???!" If you are anything like the potential class member who would call me all day at work, you would have received the class action notice (in the Google Author Settlement they did not mail notices to Authors so you probably don't know anything about the settlement, and as far as I can tell, there is no one to call and talk to directly), then called me saying "I got this thing in the mail, what the HELL is this???!"
Normally, a class action settlement notice is chock for of all sorts of useful information highlighted in caps, underlined, and sometimes cleverly hidden like the terms of the settlement (i.e. how much money, worthless coupons, or absolutely nothing I will get), how much money the attorneys will get (always in unbelievably disproportionate amounts to the value going to the class -- remember these jokers can get paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars an hour just to write this inane notice, not to mention the piles of equally idiotic briefs that led to this point), the deadline to file a claim, the deadline to opt out and file an objection (I will going over this in detail later), the date of the final settlement hearing, and of course, my phone number.
At this point my advice is to google "Author Google Lawsuit Sucks". This usually works fairly well, but being Google and all, you will probably get distracted by the 9 plus minute YouTube video of a doctor getting served with a lawsuit on a boat by a singing telegram (trust me the description is more interesting than the actual footage -- he doesn't really suck his thumb as promised, but merely licks his fingers while eating.)
If you are really a glutton for punishment, you might want to read the official Google press release http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20081027_booksearchagreement.html
and all I have to say is in the immortal words of Flavor Flav "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!"
But I digress . . . back to the terms of the settlement of the lawsuit. So, a lot of writers like me were pissed off that Google was scanning their books and the Author's Guild stepped up and sued. This was way back in the year of the Lord 2005 -- fast forward to October of 2008 and the lawyers (eager to get paid) crafted a settlement. Many important issues like copyright infringement and fair use might have been addressed in the lawsuit, but in the light of a settlement all of these trivial (yes, I'm being facetious) things are glossed over in favor of a big fat paycheck for those wiley individuals who follow their names with , Esquire.
But I'm a lowly writer, you say . . . . a published author, whose dreams of royalty checks, book tours, and best adapted screenplay Oscars have been usurped by the reality of . . . REALITY!!! What the Hell does this mean for ME!!!
Okay, okay, the settlement. To be honest, I used to make a living out of deciphering these class action settlements and relaying this (usually depressing) information to the interested masses. On a good day a Class Action Settlement Notice was maybe 4 to 6 pages long, maybe 8 pages at the most. This Class Action Notice weighs in at a whopping 33 pages!!! It almost makes you think that a zealous freelancer getting paid $2 a word crafted this sucker. http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders/
To be even more honest than I attempted to be in the last paragraph, I have not read all 33 pages. I have however, googled in an attempt to let other readers and writers do the work for me. Here are the preliminary figures -- total settlement value (don't get excited, Google gets a big fat tax write off for a huge chunk of this) $125 Million, Money paid to Lawyers -- $30 Million clams (I actually wish I was sitting in a cubicle in the plaintiffs' counsel office taking phone calls from class members like ME, dreaming of a green, um, I mean white Christmas -- and I could of been if my employers ever took me seriously, they could have been cashing $15 Million dollar checks -- jeez, I guess the joke is on them) -- $34 Million dollars to fund a NONPROFIT (tax deductible to Google) shell organization to supposedly administer money that will never be collected from folks that look at sections of our books online then decide there is no reason to buy the cow when they can get the milk for free -- and drum roll, please . . . $45 Million dollars to be divided between Authors & Publishers (two separate subclasses) for the books that have been scanned by Google. This somehow shakes down to a whopping $60 for you, my friend, the Author. Yep, I said $60, and the option to have Google take your book down from its site, or to have it funnel non-existent royalties (the milk, the cow) to you.
But you say -- $45 Million + $34 Million + $30 Million that doesn't add up to $125 Million!!! It never does . . . it never does. That is why your mother wanted you to become a lawyer.
There is this big ole ugly class action lawsuit, which is pending settlement. Google "Author Google Lawsuit" and you'll get bombarded with information. If you are an actual Author there won't be a whole lotta info here you can actually use -- unless of course you like to read . . . and if you are in fact an Author (capital A if you are published and have had "Author" under your name on a Book Festival name tag) you should be fairly proficient at reading, but more prone to writing for fun and hopefully profit -- if you get my drift.
So let me summarize the lawsuit for you. You see, that used to be my job. I used to work for a class action law firm. You may have received an email from your publisher with a link like this (oops, Google doesn't really give you a good link here . . . even the claims administrator website does a poor job hooking a class member up with the 411), anyway if you are anything like my co-writer Jamie Nudie you would forward the email to me with the message "What the HELL is this???!" If you are anything like the potential class member who would call me all day at work, you would have received the class action notice (in the Google Author Settlement they did not mail notices to Authors so you probably don't know anything about the settlement, and as far as I can tell, there is no one to call and talk to directly), then called me saying "I got this thing in the mail, what the HELL is this???!"
Normally, a class action settlement notice is chock for of all sorts of useful information highlighted in caps, underlined, and sometimes cleverly hidden like the terms of the settlement (i.e. how much money, worthless coupons, or absolutely nothing I will get), how much money the attorneys will get (always in unbelievably disproportionate amounts to the value going to the class -- remember these jokers can get paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars an hour just to write this inane notice, not to mention the piles of equally idiotic briefs that led to this point), the deadline to file a claim, the deadline to opt out and file an objection (I will going over this in detail later), the date of the final settlement hearing, and of course, my phone number.
At this point my advice is to google "Author Google Lawsuit Sucks". This usually works fairly well, but being Google and all, you will probably get distracted by the 9 plus minute YouTube video of a doctor getting served with a lawsuit on a boat by a singing telegram (trust me the description is more interesting than the actual footage -- he doesn't really suck his thumb as promised, but merely licks his fingers while eating.)
If you are really a glutton for punishment, you might want to read the official Google press release http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20081027_booksearchagreement.html
and all I have to say is in the immortal words of Flavor Flav "DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!"
But I digress . . . back to the terms of the settlement of the lawsuit. So, a lot of writers like me were pissed off that Google was scanning their books and the Author's Guild stepped up and sued. This was way back in the year of the Lord 2005 -- fast forward to October of 2008 and the lawyers (eager to get paid) crafted a settlement. Many important issues like copyright infringement and fair use might have been addressed in the lawsuit, but in the light of a settlement all of these trivial (yes, I'm being facetious) things are glossed over in favor of a big fat paycheck for those wiley individuals who follow their names with , Esquire.
But I'm a lowly writer, you say . . . . a published author, whose dreams of royalty checks, book tours, and best adapted screenplay Oscars have been usurped by the reality of . . . REALITY!!! What the Hell does this mean for ME!!!
Okay, okay, the settlement. To be honest, I used to make a living out of deciphering these class action settlements and relaying this (usually depressing) information to the interested masses. On a good day a Class Action Settlement Notice was maybe 4 to 6 pages long, maybe 8 pages at the most. This Class Action Notice weighs in at a whopping 33 pages!!! It almost makes you think that a zealous freelancer getting paid $2 a word crafted this sucker. http://books.google.com/booksrightsholders/
To be even more honest than I attempted to be in the last paragraph, I have not read all 33 pages. I have however, googled in an attempt to let other readers and writers do the work for me. Here are the preliminary figures -- total settlement value (don't get excited, Google gets a big fat tax write off for a huge chunk of this) $125 Million, Money paid to Lawyers -- $30 Million clams (I actually wish I was sitting in a cubicle in the plaintiffs' counsel office taking phone calls from class members like ME, dreaming of a green, um, I mean white Christmas -- and I could of been if my employers ever took me seriously, they could have been cashing $15 Million dollar checks -- jeez, I guess the joke is on them) -- $34 Million dollars to fund a NONPROFIT (tax deductible to Google) shell organization to supposedly administer money that will never be collected from folks that look at sections of our books online then decide there is no reason to buy the cow when they can get the milk for free -- and drum roll, please . . . $45 Million dollars to be divided between Authors & Publishers (two separate subclasses) for the books that have been scanned by Google. This somehow shakes down to a whopping $60 for you, my friend, the Author. Yep, I said $60, and the option to have Google take your book down from its site, or to have it funnel non-existent royalties (the milk, the cow) to you.
But you say -- $45 Million + $34 Million + $30 Million that doesn't add up to $125 Million!!! It never does . . . it never does. That is why your mother wanted you to become a lawyer.
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