Frankfurt - German book publishers attacked the European Union on Thursday over its encouragement to plans by internet giant Google to bring decades of now-rare books online. German and French publishers oppose an agreement reached in New York between US publishers, US authors and Google allowing the internet republication of 20th century so-called "orphan works."
Though still in copyright, orphan works' authors are now dead and their publishers have vanished, making it nearly impossible to find heirs and reprint the books. The controversial deal lets Google scan the books for sale.
"The commission ought not to be letting Google scan public resources," said Alexander Skipis, chief executive of the Boersenverein, Germany's publishers' and booksellers' association. "We utterly condemn this idea."
The Boersenverein said European nations instead had to work harder on their own lagging plans to scan old books with state funding. Skipsis said this week's adjournment of the US court proved the deal was a "failure."
The German and French governments have totally opposed the settlement in filings to the New York court.
The US government and the European Commission have been more favourable to the private company breaking the copyright impasse, but they want the deal redrafted to deny Google a monopoly.
At a Brussels hearing on September 7, EU officials agreed orphan works must come back into circulation.
"The cards have now been reshuffled," said Skipsis, predicting that the EU would now change its mind too.
The US court this week deferred its next, October 7 hearing so it can consider 400 counter-filings.
Under the Google Book Settlement, the US company would pay to set up a rights registry to distribute royalties to identifiable rights owners when books are sold online. The registry would retain any money owing on orphan works.
The German publishers insist copyright is sacrosanct, and contend that many foreign authors and their heirs will not understand how to assert US rights and may lose control of their own writings to Google.
The 125-million-dollar settlement was reached by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers last year. Google Books, with an estimated 10 million books, is one of the search company's free online services.
