Award (how much your claim may be worth): $60 per book (estimate)

Class Action Lawsuit Settlement Case(s): The Authors Guild, Inc., Association of American Publishers, Inc., et al., v. Google Inc., Case No. 05 CV 8136-JES

Company(ies): Google Inc.

Website Link to access the Class Action Lawsuit Settlement and get YOUR Stake (ONLINE CLAIMS ALLOWED): Settlement Administrator Website

Address of Class Counsel to submit a claim form (NOT REQUIRED):

Settlement Administrator
c/o Rust Consulting, Inc.
PO Box 9364
Minneapolis, MN 55440-9364

Phone Number to call for assistance: 1-612-359-8600

Details: This is a simple one to claim. If you or your predecessor (deceased parent, relative, etc., who left you the publishing rights) have a published work or are a publisher of such work, and it was scanned in by Google, there's a great chance you can make a claim. The online claim process is very straight forward. Come prepared to provide as much information as possible about your published work including who owns the rights (hopefully you), the ISBN, cover price, Author, Title, Year Published, and whether you own the local (country of origin) or worldwide rights. Head to the Settlement Administrator Website and make your claim online. Once you make your claim you'll be able to check the status at the same website.

Purchased From: Books published prior to 1/5/2009

Claims Accepted Until (YOU MUST SUBMIT YOUR CLAIM BY THIS DATE!): Submitted by 1/05/10

Class Action Lawsuit Settlement Amount(s): $125,000,000 = $45,500,000 in attorney fees + $45,000,000 to the Publishers Guild (to be distributed to Authors and Publishers) + $34,500,000 to setup a non-profit to handle the rights and payments going forward.

Settlement Administrator: Rust Consulting, Inc.

TCA Staff Tidbit: So, why are we listing this one here? Simple, this is covering hundreds of thousands of written works. If you published a book and it was registered with the U.S. Copyright office make your claim in the Google Book class action lawsuit settlement. There are thousands of people out there who can be included in this settlement and probably aren't even aware of it. Why? Because you may have a deceased distant relative who published a novel which may allow you to claim a portion of the settlement. Is it a stretch? No, not really, just make sure you truly DO own the rights. Keep in mind, that even if they were a prolific writer who published 100 books, your share of the settlement will be $6,500 (estimate.) You won't get rich, but, this is cash you otherwise wouldn't receive, so why not make your claim? More importantly, once you make your claim, you'll be paid for how often the published work is accessed, so if it's popular you could continue to receive checks. If it's not, all you're out is the five minutes it took to fill out the claim form. Not a bad return right? 5 minutes for at least $60? Most importantly, this lets Google continue to scan works and store them indefinitely. As someone who is a prolific reader I think it's fantastic, and essential, that these are stored electronically for future generations. How interesting would it be if the Egyptians stored all of their written works on a USB thumb drive rather than on papyrus scrolls. Wouldn't it be cool if you could Google the works of the Pharaoh Ramses and a vast amount of his writings weren't lost to the sands? I digress, but, you get my point. If you can, MAKE YOUR CLAIM!