European Opposition Mounts Against Google’s Selling Digitized Books

The Bodleian Library at Oxford University, above, is working with Google to digitize its books.

BERLIN — Opposition is mounting in Europe to a proposed class-action settlement giving Google the right to commercialize digital copies of millions of books.

The settlement would permit Americans to buy online access to millions of books by European authors whose works were scanned by Google at American libraries.

While some big European publishers, like the Oxford University Press and Bertelsmann (which owns Random House) and Georg von Holtzbrinck (the owner of Macmillan), support the agreement, there is widespread opposition among French publishers. The German government, supported by national collection societies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain, plans to argue against it and encourage writers to pull out of the agreement.

A United States District Court has set a Sept. 4 deadline for submissions on the settlement and plans to hold a hearing Oct. 7.

Akash Sachdeva, an intellectual property lawyer with the law firm Allen & Overy in London, said that last-minute objections from Europe were unlikely to stop the settlement from going forward.

“I would imagine the court is going to say that because you have a significant amount of big players around the world who have opted into this, then it is worth proceeding with,” he said.

Google, which has been digitizing books since 2004 to make them available online, says the proposed settlement will benefit publishers, authors and consumers, making a vast reservoir of work available for easy access.

Around the world, 25,000 publishers, libraries and individuals are working with Google to digitize their archives and catalogues, including Oxford’s prestigious Bodleian Library and the Bavarian State Library. Even the French National Library, an outspoken opponent of the project, said last week that it was talking to Google about a deal to help digitize its archives.

“We believe that we are helping the industry tremendously by creating a way for authors and publishers to be found,” said Santiago de la Mora, Google’s head of printing partnerships in London. “Search is critical. If you are not found, the rest cannot follow.” link....