The German Government has filed a complaint with the US court opposing the Google’s intentions to scan and digitize books, as it would violate the German copyright law. The government said in the court filing in New York that the deal “runs afoul of the applicable German national laws, as well as European public initiatives to create non-commercial worldwide digital libraries.”
Earlier in October 2008, Google had reached a settlement agreement with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers on behalf of authors and publishers worldwide to expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the US from the collections of a number of US libraries participating in Google Book Search.
This settlement was not been received well by competitors like Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo, who formed a coalition last month challenging the agreement. In July, the US Department of Justice said that it was examining the deal to see if it was anti-competitive.
Google said in a statement reported by The Wall Street Journal: The German government has filed a brief in US court raising concerns about our settlement with authors and publishers on the basis of German law. We don’t agree since the scope of our US settlement is limited to the US and comes under US law and only US readers will benefit.
“Of course, we will listen carefully to all concerns and will work hard to address them. Our goal remains bringing millions of the world’s difficult-to-find, out-of-print books back to life.
