In a joint media statement, Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) said that they had reached a "groundbreaking" settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to in-copyright books and other written materials through Google Book Search.

The October 28 2008 deal would resolve a class-action court action lodged by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate court action lodged by five major publishers as representatives of AAP's membership, the media statement said.

The agreement was reached after two years of negotiations. The class action is subject to approval by the US district court for the southern district of New York.

The Authors Guild represents more than 8000 authors. The AAP is the national trade association of the US book publishing industry and its more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the US, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies.

"The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web," the statement said.

The agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners, provides an efficient means for them to control how their intellectual property is accessed online and enables them to receive compensation for online access to their works.

If approved by the court, the agreement would provide for generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the US to search these works and preview them online, the statement said.

It would also offer additional ways to purchase copyrighted books, and would offer a means for US colleges, universities and other organisations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world's most renowned libraries.

It would provide free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in US public and university libraries.

As to compensation for authors and publishers and control over access to their works, the agreement would provide for distribution of payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programmes that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.

Google will pay $125 million, which will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees.

"Google Book Search users in the US will be able to enjoy and purchase the products and services offered under the project. Outside the US, the users' experience with Google Book Search will be unchanged, unless the offering of such products and services is authorised by the rightsholder of a book," the statement said.

Google Book Search was launched in 2004, and today enables the full text searching of more than a million books online. More than 20 000 publishers and 29 libraries around the world currently work with Google to market their books through the service, the statement said.