Google Unveils Screen Shots of Library Program

GDO Report

Book publishers in the United Kingdom are seriously considering legal action against Google over the Bay Area-headquartered search engine company's plans to create a virtual library by digitizing millions of books held in public libraries and universities.

According to press reports, the London-based Publishers Association has refused to rule out taking legal action over Google's "Print Project," saying that it was holding a "full and frank debate" with the company and other parties.

The trade group's announcement comes after it emerged that the Authors Guild, which represents 8,000 authors on both sides of the Atlantic, has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the internet company of "massive copyright infringements" at the expense of the rights of individual writers.

The suit was filed in a district court in New York and asks for damages and an injunction against what the group calls "further alleged infringements." Google's library scheme represents a "plain and brazen violation of copyright law . . . It is not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied," said Nick Taylor, president of the Authors Guild.

Five of the world's most famous libraries, including the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, have agreed to have books scanned and posted online by Google, but, after complaints from several groups about potential copyright infringement, the company recently agreed to stop scanning copyright protected books until November.

Although the Bodleian says that it has chosen 19th-century books to avoid issues over copyright, other participants including Harvard and several other major US universities plan to provide randomly selected shelves of books for scanning. Some groups fear that Google will be unable to ascertain which books are still copyrighted.

Generally, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, but in the UK new editions of otherwise out-of-copyright works enjoy a further 25-year protection period.

Google said that the two-month scanning "break" would give publishers time to alert it to books they "prefer we would not scan," emphasizing that it was "respecting copyright."

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