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Samantha Holman, chief executive of the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, has warned that 'perhaps most' Irish authors remain unaware of a recent class action settlement in the US that will award sweeping rights to manage and sell digitised versions of every work published or made available in the US, reports the Irish Times.
The settlement allows Google – which has already digitised more than seven million books – the non-exclusive right to digitise every book published before 5th January this year. Authors who wish to exclude their books from the settlement must inform Google by 5th May. But opting out of the settlement "does not exclude your books". Authors will have to go after Google to make sure they are removed, Holman told an audience of authors in Dublin.
Opting in may allow rights holders to have some say on the limitations placed on how their works might be accessed, she says. Doing nothing automatically binds works to the settlement.