[LINK] google sued by French for copyright infringement

[Jan Whitaker]

Google in $13b legal fight over scanned books
May 12, 2011 - 3:19AM

Google sets aside half a billion dollars for advertising probe

Three top French publishers say they are suing US internet giant 
Google for scanning thousands of their books for its online library 
without permission.

Publishers Gallimard, Flammarion and Albin Michel lodged a case with 
a Paris court demanding 9.8 billion euros in damages ($13 billion) 
and Google has been issued a summons, a source in Gallimard's legal 
department said.

The publishers are suing for forgery, demanding the money as payment 
for nearly 10,000 books they say Google has digitally scanned without 
permission to make them available online.

The damages are for "a fixed tariff of 1000 euros per scanned book to 
which the publishers own the rights," said the legal representative 
who asked not to be named.

"We limited ourselves to books that we are sure have been reproduced" 
by Google for its vast worldwide library project, which has already 
scanned some 12 million books.

Google responded by insisting its book-scanning activities were legal 
and said it was examining the summons.
[more a the link]
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/google-in-13b-legal-fight-over-scanned-books-20110512-1ej6e.html


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

_ __________________ _