14 DAY TRIAL // While talks languish in the US, Google has managed to strike a first of its kind deal in France for its Google Books project. Google has managed to get publisher Hachette Livre to sign a deal with the company enabling it to offer out-of-print as well as in-print versions of the books owned by Hachette in Google's online ebookstore, which will get a French version later this year.
Tens of thousands of titles are expected to become available online thanks to the new deal, the New York Times reports.
An important part of the deal, and what sets it apart from similar ones Google has signed, is that out-of-print books, which can't be bought new through any other means, will be available as well.
This will mean that people will finally be able to buy copies of books that are no longer available in bookstores.
This is an important point for Google, which has been working on getting an even broader deal in the US that would include orphaned books as well, titles that are no longer in print and for which the appropriate copyright holder can't be found.
Google reached a settlement with a couple of publisher and author associations in the US which would offer it a broad license to scan and offer for sale any out of print or orphaned book, with authors given the chance to opt-out of the deal but included by default.
An US judge blocked the wide deal and instead told the parties involved to come up with an agreement that would not give Google a unique competitive advantage, saying he prefers an opt-in type of deal.
This would, presumably, make it impossible for Google to offer orphaned books, a point Google has been fighting hard for.
In France, while Google has scored a victory, it has yet to convince any of the other, smaller publishers to join, some of which may still opt for the legal route.