[A2k] AP: Paris Court Convicts Google in Copyright Case

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

     * TECHNOLOGY
     * DECEMBER 18, 2009, 10:39 A.M. ET

Paris Court Convicts Google in Copyright Case


Associated Press

PARIS -- A Paris court ruled Friday that Google Inc. is breaking
French law with its policy of digitizing books, handing the U.S.
Internet giant a =8010,000 ($14,340)-a-day fine until it rids its
database of the literary extracts.

A judge also ordered Google to pay =80300,000 in damages and interest to
French publisher La Martini=E8re, which brought the case on behalf of a
group of French publishers. The attorney for Google, Alexandra Neri,
said Google plans to appeal the decision.

Google's plans to scan millions of books to make them available online
has drawn criticism from publishers and libraries in both the U.S. and
Europe. Even if the case doesn't have much financial impact on Google
or force a big change in its book-scanning strategy, it is a reminder
that its ambitions are increasingly colliding with fears that the
company is getting too powerful.

The head of the French publisher's union said he was "completely
satisfied" with the verdict. "It shows Google that they are not the
kings of the world and they can't do whatever they want," said Serge
Eyrolles, president of France's Syndicat National de l'=C9dition. He
said Google had scanned 100,000 French books into its database -- 80%
of which were under copyright.

Mr. Eyrolles said French publishers would still like to work with
Google to digitize their books, "but only if they stop playing around
with us and start respecting intellectual property rights."

Philippe Colombet, the head of Google's book-scanning project in
France, said the company disagrees with the judgment. "French readers
now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of
knowledge and falling behind the rest of Internet users," he said an
emailed statement. "We believe that displaying a limited number of
short extracts from books complies with copyright legislation both in
France and the U.S. -- and improves access to books," Mr. Colombet said.

Google defended its publication of excerpts of copyright-protected
material at a trial in September. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said
that using select excerpts without permission "is a bad representation
of the works."

U.S. authors and publishers also sued Mountain View, Calif.-based
Google. The parties have settled, but are renegotiating details after
the U.S. Justice Department concluded that the original deal probably
violates antitrust law.

The top U.S. copyright official and the governments in Germany and
France also have raised objections about the settlement overstepping
its bounds.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


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