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

[Amy Kapczynski]

Anyone know what the result of this will be?  Is Google supposed to
block (some? all?) access to GBS texts in France --  and how?  Would
also love to see a copy of the judgment (in English, ideally...) if
anyone comes across it.



On Dec 18, 2009, at 10:02 AM, Thiru Balasubramaniam wrote:

>    * 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.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Thiru Balasubramaniam
> Geneva Representative
> Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
> thiru@keionline.org
>
>
> Tel: +41 22 791 6727
> Mobile: +41 76 508 0997
>
>
>
>
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