By Tony Field
Musicians know all too well the problems of protecting their copyright in the age of the internet.
Now authors are facing the same problem.
New Zealand authors have seven days left to decide whether to sign up to a google plan that would see the company digitise millions of books.
New Zealand author Margaret Mahy said “if one could feel that having your story or book on Google would encourage people to go out and buy the book, that would be one thing.”
But the well-know children’s author worries about all those people who might read her book on Google and decide they don’t need to buy a copy.
She said “I do think it is important that authors get recognition and a reasonable payment for the books.”
Google had been digitising books without anyone's permission until it was challenged in the American courts by groups representing US authors and publishers.
Now Google has agreed to pay authors to display their books - and provide links to sites where they can buy hard copies.
Intellectual property author Rick Shera said “for an author who would never have a chance of getting that deal in the US this could be fantastic. Not only will they be getting money, but they will be getting the exposure.”
Although he did concede that it may not be a success for everyone. “Ultimately there could be quite small amounts of money that come out to the author and that's got to be balanced against that downside potential of "well, I can no longer grant my rights exclusively to anyone else".
And there could be plenty of others who want that back catalogue - Amazon’s aggressively pushing its electronic book, the kindle.
And apple is about to launch their tablet - a larger version of the iPhone.
The Auckland University Press has decided to opt in to the Google deal, saying it will give it greater control of its titles in the US.
Lawyers say this digitisation will accelerate the move from print to electronic books.
This is just part of a wider battle that is going to be waged over the way books are going to be published, distributed and prompted in the future.
3 News