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Publishers Group Sues Google over Library ProjectThe Association of American Publishers announced October 19 that it had filed a lawsuit seeking to block Google’s plan to digitize large collections of books and make them searchable through any search engine and downloadable for free. The move came a month after the Authors Guild filed a similar suit charging the program with copyright infringement.The AAP suit, which a seeks a court order preventing Google from scanning entire copyright-protected books without permission of the copyright owner, was filed on behalf of AAP members McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group (USA), Simon and Schuster, and John Wiley and Sons. In a statement, AAP said it took the action only after lengthy discussions between the association and Google management broke down. “The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights,” said AAP President Patricia Schroeder. “While authors and publishers know how useful Google’s search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers.” “Creating an easy-to-use index of books is fair use under copyright law and supports the purpose of copyright: to increase the awareness and sales of books, directly benefiting copyright holders,” David Drummond, Google’s general counsel, said in a statement. “This short-sighted attempt to block Google Print works counter to the interests of not just the world’s readers, but also the world’s authors and publishers.” Meanwhile, Google announced October 17 that it had launched local-language search engines in eight European countries for its Google Print program, allowing users to search books from publishers in each country as well as selected English-language books. Susan Wojcicki, Google vice president of product management, said in the October 18 New York Times that the new sites currently search only a relatively small number of titles, but that eventually they would provide access to data about foreign-language books held by the libraries involved in the project: Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford Universities; the University of Michigan; and New York Public Library. Posted October 21, 2005. |
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