Google will pay $125 million to settle two lawsuits with authors and publishers. The settlement effectively gives the company the go-ahead to digitize millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search.

Subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the agreement - reached after two years of negotiations - resolves a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Under the settlement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million which will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers, and to cover legal fees.

Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights will be able to register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized.

Source: Google, “Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement”, Google Press Release, October 27, 2008

Amidst the carnage occurring on global financial markets… the depletion of venture capital… the current / looming economic recession… at least some are focusing on the positives.

In his recent article in TechCrunch, Dan Kimerling points out that Google was in its infancy during the dot-com crash and has gone on to survive, thrive and dominate.

He also makes the point that it’s often during times when there isn’t much money around – e.g. whether for marketing, investing in new technologies, or investing in startups – that people get creative. Put it this way, if you don’t have the money for traditional solutions (e.g. expensive advertising), you have no choice but to think up more creative ways to achieve what you want.

“One thing that is really excites me about the moment is seeing all innovation that is coming,” writes Mr Kimerling, “If advertising dollars dry up, and there is some early suggestion that they might, then you will see startups experiment with new revenue streams. Some of them will fail, but some of them will work, and when the start-up community finds those that do work, start-ups will evolve to incorporate these new revenue models… As funding because tighter and tighter, it means that the rate of technological innovation will likely speed up, out of necessity to find new ways to make internet companies profitable quickly.”

Now that’s exciting… and a much more positive spin on the current economic situation.

I have lots more thoughts on why – and how – we can turn these general economic woes to our advantage. I’ll share them with you in upcoming issues of the newsletter.

Source: Dan Kimerling, “The Seeds of the Next Big Thing Are Being Planted Now”, TechCrunch, October 4, 2008