Two separate lawsuits brought on Google in 2005 have been settled. In a combined $125 million settlement, Google agreed to pay copyright fees associated with its book scanning project. The lawsuits, one brought on by 5 major publishing companies, the other a class action suit by authors whose works were used by Google, have been in the negotiation process for nearly three years.

As part of the settlement, Google will be able to continue to use in-copyright materials in its book search. You can search through sections of certain books, as well as purchase the full text of thousands of books directly from a Google search. This clears the way for a larger project by Google to host books in a separate search, and monetize the process with advertising and publishing fees. This is a project that has been put on hold until now because of the lawsuits.

This project fits right in with Google’s mission, “to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful”, as Sergey Brin, co-founder, states. Google will create a more complete books section that can be used for research as well as casual browsing. They will make it accessible to every library across the country for no charge. For individual users, they plan to charge for copyrighted material, in addition to hosting free browse-able snippets.

This historic settlement seems to be fair from all angles. It compensates the rightful owners of the materials for use, as well as provides a standard of payment for future use of the copyrighted material. In addition, the settlement is great for Google and its users, because it adds a valuable new tool to the search service. Already, universities and libraries nationwide are lining up to join the project.