Google Book Project Tries to Placate the Critics: Will It Be Enough?
* Foreign works would be excluded, other than works published in Canada, the UK or Australia;
* The Registry would include representatives of authors and publishers from those countries, as well as a representative charged with protecting the interests of authors of orphan works;
* Unclaimed funds attributable to commercialization of orphan works would not be distributed to other authors. Up to 25% of the money could be spent seeking to identify the authors. If they had not been found within 10 years, the funds would be donated to literacy-based charities;
* The commercialization opportunities would not be open-ended, but would still include downloading of entire books, print-on-demand, and consumer subscription;
* Google would be able to discount prices without consulting first with the Registry (a concern of the DOJ, which felt that giving the Registry a voice in setting prices might amount to price-fixing among competitors);
* Copyright holders could instruct Google to use different licensing models, and to give away their books for free; and
* Google would be required to make the database available to third-party resellers, such as Amazon and allow them to keep the majority of the profit originally allocated to Google.