Dear Google Books (you BASTARDS)
So, I've finally had a chance to look at the Google Books settlement. Not before time too, as the deadline is now March the something.
In a nutshell, this is a class action settlement for authors who had their copyrighted material illegally scanned by Google Books and made available for the public to read online via Google Books before 2009. It stinks. It more than stinks. However, I'm not about to let the bastards just HAVE my work. No, no no, I want the paltry $15 per story they're offering.
I'm not a fan of class action lawsuits. Seems like, time and time again, the only winners are the lawyers. Sure, I've had a few checks for $20 odd from Microsoft and Compaq for various things I know nothing about, thank you very much. But there's also a bigger ongoing one from Chase Visa for ripping me off on foreign exchange over the years. I filled in the claim forms for that one and it came to about $7,000 I'd get back. That was back in 2008. I'm still waiting for my money, and due to the appeals, and the appeals on the appeals, I shouldn't hold my breath. Oh, and that $7,000 is now approximately $250. I kid you not. So, yeah... NOT a fan of class actions.
But GoogleBooks is crazy. I register, and then I can search for books with my work in them, find out if it was available illegally in the time frame, and if it was, I can submit my claim. Now according to my spiffy Submission Tracker database, I had 41 stories published in print anthologies between 2001 and the early part of 2009. Googlebooks makes me put in all the titles, (as I can't search on my name, being a contributor and not the name on the front of the book) one by one, and then they tell me if the books was ripped off or not.
The good news is lots of them weren't (being put out by the wonderful Cleis Press, who have done good damage control), but many of them were. But here's the rub. To submit the claim, I have to put in all sorts of info verifying my right to claim the information, including the page numbers of the books so stolen. But unless I'm being very stupid, a lot of them although they once were available online, they now aren't, so I can't use Googlebooks to get the page numbers. And my older print copies are in storage units around the world and not here.
So how the fuck I'm supposed to fill in the claim forms, I do not know.
NOT happy Googlebooks. Not fucking happy AT ALL.
In a nutshell, this is a class action settlement for authors who had their copyrighted material illegally scanned by Google Books and made available for the public to read online via Google Books before 2009. It stinks. It more than stinks. However, I'm not about to let the bastards just HAVE my work. No, no no, I want the paltry $15 per story they're offering.
I'm not a fan of class action lawsuits. Seems like, time and time again, the only winners are the lawyers. Sure, I've had a few checks for $20 odd from Microsoft and Compaq for various things I know nothing about, thank you very much. But there's also a bigger ongoing one from Chase Visa for ripping me off on foreign exchange over the years. I filled in the claim forms for that one and it came to about $7,000 I'd get back. That was back in 2008. I'm still waiting for my money, and due to the appeals, and the appeals on the appeals, I shouldn't hold my breath. Oh, and that $7,000 is now approximately $250. I kid you not. So, yeah... NOT a fan of class actions.
But GoogleBooks is crazy. I register, and then I can search for books with my work in them, find out if it was available illegally in the time frame, and if it was, I can submit my claim. Now according to my spiffy Submission Tracker database, I had 41 stories published in print anthologies between 2001 and the early part of 2009. Googlebooks makes me put in all the titles, (as I can't search on my name, being a contributor and not the name on the front of the book) one by one, and then they tell me if the books was ripped off or not.
The good news is lots of them weren't (being put out by the wonderful Cleis Press, who have done good damage control), but many of them were. But here's the rub. To submit the claim, I have to put in all sorts of info verifying my right to claim the information, including the page numbers of the books so stolen. But unless I'm being very stupid, a lot of them although they once were available online, they now aren't, so I can't use Googlebooks to get the page numbers. And my older print copies are in storage units around the world and not here.
So how the fuck I'm supposed to fill in the claim forms, I do not know.
NOT happy Googlebooks. Not fucking happy AT ALL.