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Google looks towards European Commission for help
By siliconindia
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Monday, 07 September 2009, 22:24 IST
Bangalore: Google's Book Project is still in the midst of controversy. It has raised serious concerns among rivals, Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon, as well as European copyright holders and publishers. Now, Google is trying to give concessions to European publishers and hoping that a solution is possible.
Google spokesman Bill Echikson told Wall Street Journal that the company would try to take publishers concerns on board and would also appoint two European representatives, one representative for authors and one for publishers, to see that all problems are solved.
Through this Book Project, Google plans to put many hard-to-find books online and strengthen its digital library. Echikson said that Google would also check and make sure that english-language editions of books originally published in a european language weren't wrongly listed as out-of-print in the U.S. Many publishers fear that adding such books to the Google library would deprive them of sales achieved by selling exclusive books.
The European Commission is holding a hearing on to examine the effect of Google's 10-month settlement with U.S. authors and publishers in the European Union. In the U.S, Google was scanning any book available irrespective of when it was launched. But in Europe, the company plans to scan only those books which are 150 years old and are out of print to avoid copyright violation.
