[Ecommerce] Google faces massive copyright suit

[Michelle Childs]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39219611,00.htm


Google faces massive copyright suit


Elinor Mills
CNET News.com
September 21, 2005, 08:55 BST


The search giant stands accused of 'a plain and brazen violation of
copyright law' over its plan to digitise the world's books

A group representing more than 8,000 authors on Tuesday filed a lawsuit
against search engine Google, alleging that its scanning and digitising of
library books constitutes a "massive" copyright infringement.

As part of its Google Print Library Project, the company is working to
scan all or parts of the book collections of the University of Michigan,
Harvard University, Stanford University, the New York Public Library and
Oxford University. It intends to make those texts searchable on Google and
to sell advertisements on the Web pages.

"This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," Nick Taylor,
president of the group, the New York-based Authors Guild, said in a
statement about the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status. "It's
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."

Last month, Google said it would temporarily halt its book scanning in the
project in response to criticism from publishers and others. It said at
the time that it also was making changes to its Google Print Publisher
Program, in which books are scanned at the request of the publisher so
people can view excerpts.

The individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which seeks damages and an
injunction to stop the digitising, are former New York Times editorial
writer Herbert Mitgang, children's author Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman,
the 1973-1974 Poet Laureate of the United States.

Google did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the lawsuit.
(Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET
News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by
a previous story.)




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