The judges' decision was celebrated by La Martinière, which had argued that Google used snippets of its books to win revenue from advertisers without adequately compensating the works' creators or original publishers. "We are very, very satisfied," said Yann Colin, a lawyer for the publishing house. "The decision is immediately enforceable, so even if they appeal, they must stop the scanning."
But Google, which plans to appeal the ruling, said the court's decision was self-defeating and ultimately would only hurt the nation's book lovers, authors and publishers. "French readers now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of knowledge and falling behind the rest of Internet users," said Philippe Colombet, director of development for Google Books in France. "We believe that displaying a limited number of short extracts from books complies with copyright legislation both in France and the U.S. and improves access to books. If readers are able to search and find books, they're more likely to buy and read them."
Carlos Osorio, AP
A court put a stop in France to Google's effort to digitalize the world's books.
This is just the latest setback to hit Google's highly ambitious project, which has so far digitized over 10 million titles -- half of which are not in English -- through partnerships with Oxford, Harvard, Stanford and other universities. Early this year, it was forced to sign up to a settlement with U.S. authors and publishers, who had initiated a similar copyright case against the search titan. The new deal included measures to track down and compensate authors, but it only covered books published in North America, Australia and the U.K., as well as those registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. That settlement still needs court approval before it comes into force.
The French trial triggered a wave of anti-American rhetoric. President Nicolas Sarkozy last week declared, "We won't let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is." But there are already indications that the country's writers and publishers will eventually sign up to a similar agreement with Google. "We're in favor of digitalization because it enlarges the market," Serge Eyrolles, president of the national syndicate of French publishers, told the French daily Le Figaro. "But not for free."
The fact is that Google has proved it has the technology and the know-how to quickly scan millions of titles. In contrast, previous French efforts, such as the $2.5 billion government-backed Quaero book search engine, launched in 2005, have all flopped. One French executive has already called on Google to sit down and talk over a new deal. "I would like Google to acknowledge the verdict," said Arnaud Nourry, CEO of Hachette Livre, the world's second-largest book publisher, "since it now appears that the only way to go forward will be contractual, which entails negotiations."
