Berlin - French and German book publishers raised the stakes Thursday in their battle against internet giant Google over copyrights and online access to books, with French companies hauling Google into court and German companies demanding help from the European Union. Under a deal reached with US publishers, Google is to offer online access to millions of rare 20th century books whose authors are mostly dead, but which are still subject to copyright laws.
Both the European Commission and the US government have suggested the impasse over copyright laws must be broken so that the books can be read online in digitized versions. But Washington has told a New York court that Google must not become a monopoly.
A Paris court began hearing charges of copyright infringement and forgery, which were brought in 2006 by a publisher, Herve de La Martiniere. He is now backed by the 530-member French Publisher's Association (SNE) and the Society of Authors (SGDL).
The daily La Tribune reported Google plans to argue that: a French judge has no jurisdiction over actions under US law; digitizing is not copying; and that posting brief excerpts from books online is permitted under French law.
German book publishers, who say that only the state has the right to digitize old books, attacked the European Union over its encouragement to Google to bring so-called "orphan works" back into circulation.
Though still in copyright, orphan works' authors are now dead and the books' publishers have gone out of business, making it nearly impossible to find heirs to authorize online versions of the books.
At a September 7 Brussels hearing, EU officials said Google was offering a solution to the orphan works issue.
"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.
A 125-million-dollar settlement was reached by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers before a New York court last year. The court this week deferred its next, October 7 hearing so it can consider 400 counter-filings.
The German and French governments have opposed the settlement in filings to the New York court.
Skipsis said this week's adjournment proved the deal was a "failure."
Brigitte Zypries, Germany's justice minister, welcomed the delay and said she would seek better terms for German authors and publishers.
She charged that Google had tried to "create facts on the ground, then legalize them retrospectively."
The book industry has been criticized by some in Germany, where the State Library of Bavaria in Munich is a Google ally.
France's second largest library, in Lyon, is also letting Google scan its books and the French National Library is currently negotiating with the internet giant, which offers to digitize books for libraries at no cost.
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 in Frankfurt, predicting that the EU would now change its mind too.
Under the Google settlement, the US company would pay to set up a rights registry to distribute royalties to identifiable rights owners when copyrighted books are sold online. The registry would retain any money owed on orphan works.
Last week the US Justice Department urged the court to reject the settlement because it would violate copyright and antitrust laws. Washington suggested legislation, rather than a court settlement, was needed.
Google Books, with an estimated 10 million books scanned so far, is one of the search company's free online services.
The SNE's Christine de Mazieres said this included about 100,000 French books. A similar number of German books is believed to have been scanned. Google already allows users to read or download most 19th century books in their entirety.
