Google's Print Library Project defended by US academic

M2 Best Books, Feb 8, 2006

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Google's Print Library Project has been defended by Mary Sue Coleman, a US academic, at a talk delivered to the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

As part of the project, which involves five libraries, Google is digitalising books to make them searchable at http://print.google.com. Google is currently facing legal opposition from publishers and authors opposed to the project, including the AAP.

Coleman, president of the University of Michigan - one of the institutions participating in the project - reportedly told the AAP that Google's initiative would preserve books from decay and would not infringe copyright.

Previously a three-month pause in the scanning of copyrighted books for the Google Print Library project was announced by the company in August 2005 to enable copyright holders to apply for their books to be excluded from the scheme.

The lawsuit by the AAP was initiated against Google in October 2005. According to the BBC the action, which was filed in New York, aims to secure a legal declaration that Google infringes copyright when it scans entire copyrighted books and seeks a court order preventing Google from digitising copyrighted books without permission of the copyright owner.