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Live Search Books Program Policies

Updated May 30, 2007

Please note that the program policies below may change from time to time. Please periodically review these policies and ensure your continued compliance.

Eligibility

Participation

The program is open to all rights holders—publishers and authors. We strongly encourage you to carefully read the program policies below, and the program Terms and Conditions, to determine whether participation is right for you.

Submission of titles

Once you have signed up and accepted the program Terms and Conditions, you are eligible to submit titles for inclusion in the Live Search Books index. Please note that when you submit a title or edit the information associated with the title, you are warranting that you have the right to do so. When you submit a title, you must specify the territories in which you hold rights. If you have any questions about your rights to your titles, you should consult your legal advisor. Microsoft will incorporate material pursuant to rights holder instructions without verifying accuracy of the input. Carefully review the information and instructions in our Program Site. If at any time you determine that you do not have the rights required to include a title in the Live Search Books program in the manner you indicated, it is your responsibility to suspend or withdraw the title from the Program until you have clarified or regained the appropriate rights and/or corrected your submission in the manner indicated in the Program Site.

Disposal of material

Books, files and other materials that you send us will not be returned. Please note that the time span between your book submission and the appearance of your title in the Live Search Books index may vary. We reserve the right to hold or reject titles, without notice, and for any reason.

Appropriate content

Books

Live Search Books only accepts books that have been assigned an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). For more information about obtaining an ISBN for your title, visit www.isbn.org.

Printed books submitted for scanning must be complete and in good condition. Your books must be shipped using the address label and packing slip generated by the Live Search Books Publisher Program site. See our FAQ and online help for information on the types of electronic files we can accept.

We are not currently accepting any of the following: magazines, journals, newspapers, or audio books. Please do not send these materials.

Languages

Live Search Books accepts books in all languages, but only books in English will be considered for inclusion in the service at this time. Books in other languages will be stored and considered for inclusion at a later date.

Appropriate subject matter

Live Search Books reserves the right to reject or remove any title from the service at any time, without notice. It is our policy to exclude content that advocates hatred, bigotry, racism, or illegal activity. You may not submit titles that contain illegal content.

Preview Rights

Live Search Books requires rights holders to set Preview Rights for each title included in the service. Preview Rights specify the manner in which content is displayed in response to a search query, and the amount of content that is displayed. Rights holders can choose among the following three options (and any additional options Live Search Books may make available) through the Program Site, or keep the default setting:

  • Percent Viewable – The rights holder sets the percentage of the book that will be viewable by a user in each 30-day period, starting at 5% of the book and going up to 100%, in 5% increments. The maximum number of viewable pages will be a percentage of the total number of pages in the book. The user can navigate through the book as he or she wishes until the percentage limit is reached. User page views will be tracked, and no more than the pre-determined percentage of the full book will be viewable by each user in each 30-day period (beginning with the first day that the book was viewed). Unless the rights holder selects 100% viewable, login (with a Microsoft Passport or Windows Live ID) is required to view pages that are displayed using this option.
    The default setting for Preview Rights is the Percent Viewable option, with up to 20% of the title viewable in each 30-day period (beginning with the first day the book was previewed).
  • Pages Forward and Pages Back – For each page that contains a user’s query term, the relevant page will be displayed; in addition, users will be able to view two pages forward and two backward from that page. User page views will be tracked, and no more than 20% of the full book will be viewable by any one user in each 30-day period (beginning with the first day that pages from the book were viewed). User login (with a Microsoft Passport or Windows Live ID) is required to view pages that are displayed using this option.
  • Contextual Snippet – For each page that contains one or more of the user’s search query terms, approximately 25% of the total page will be displayed (either in one continuous segment, or in two or more discrete segments). The remainder of the page will be obscured so that its content is not readable. User login (with a Microsoft Passport or Windows Live ID) is not required to view pages that are displayed using this option.
  • Page Range Exclusion – The rights holder may designate one or more pages, or page ranges, for the book which will be excluded from preview. Excluded pages will be blocked in their entirety. Page Range Exclusion is a Preview Rights modifier that is used in conjunction with the Percent Viewable, Pages Forward and Pages Back, and Contextual Snippets preview options.
  • Note: The following pages and content from your books will be displayed without restriction: front and back (inside and outside) covers; preambles and forwards; table of contents, index, publisher, author, title and copyright description pages, and metadata.

    Image blocking

    The Program Site provides a mechanism to request that Live Search Books block the display of images that appear within a title. Image blocking is an automated process designed to generally exclude the display of any content that appears to be non-textual (usually including for example, photographs, illustrations, charts, and tabular material). Note that there may be occurrences where the image blocking process inadvertently blocks textual material, or fails to block some imagery.

    Territorial Rights

    When you specify territorial rights, Microsoft will only include the book on websites designed for that geographic market (for example, a book designated U.S.-only would be visible to users at http://___.com but not http://___.co.uk).

    Rights holder promotional copy and links

    Live Search Books will enable you to submit a link to your commerce-enabled web site for your indexed titles. Please note that the link you submit must link directly to your commerce-enabled site, and to the title being displayed. You may not link to any other commerce-enabled site, either as an affiliate or non-affiliate. We reserve the right to reject (without notice) any link submitted. The following guidelines apply to all display text and external content links that you provide to Live Search Books:

    Textual Content:

  • Do not advertise illegitimate or illegal products or services.
  • Do not include text that advocates hatred, bigotry, or racism.
  • Do not use offensive language.
  • Must be accurate and not misleading.
  • Destination Links:

  • Must provide clear and direct access to content related to the link text.
  • Must work properly and resolve to a working website. It cannot connect to an email address or file, and must not be under construction.
  • Must not spawn pop-up ads.
  • Must not link to a website that advocates hatred, bigotry, racism, or illegal activity.
  • The back button must be functional and enable users to return to the search results page.
  • The destination link may redirect, but the user must be redirected immediately to the content described in the referring link.
  • Changes to Rights Holder Submissions

    If you update or correct information you previously submitted (such as display settings, metadata, etc.), there will be a time lag before your changes appear in our online search results. We will indicate on the Program Site if we expect an update typically will take more than 24 hours; in those cases, you will have the option of suspending display of the title while the update is pending