EU to investigate Google's book deal

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 29 May 2009 at 08:22

The EU will study plans by Google to make millions of books available online, after concerns were raised that the project flouts copyright law.

The European Commission says it will look at how Google's settlement with authors in the US affect writers' rights in the EU.

"The commission will carefully study the whole issue and, if need be, to take steps," Vladimir Tosovsky, industry minister for the Czech EU presidency, told a news conference.

The investigation follows a "Heidelberg Appeal" in Germany claiming that Google has scanned books from US libraries without prior consent from European rights holders.

Britain and France voiced support for Germany's concerns.

American author and publisher groups have reached a deal to allow Google to digitise millions of books. The deal, which still requires court approval, would also affect European authors published in America though they can opt out of the deal.

"Google's actions are irreconcilable with the principles of European copyright law, according to which the consent of the author must be obtained before his or her works may be reproduced or made publicly available on the Internet," the German appeal notes.

Google says it is happy to engage to any constructive dialogue on the future of books and copyright: "We will now have a welcome opportunity to explain to the European Commission how authors, publishers and Google have agreed to move forward in the United States."

Germany said Google's actions could increase media ownership concentration and affect cultural diversity. The EU launched its own digital library, Europeana.eu, last November but was swamped by 10 million hits an hour and crashed.