Google Opens 8 Book Search Sites in Europe

This will further alienate book publishers: Google has begun operating local-language sites in eight European countries for its Google Print program, its closely watched effort to make all of the world’s books searchable online, expanding into territories where it has drawn fierce criticism.

The country sites: France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. The new sites currently could be used to search only a relatively small number of books. Many of those have been scanned since August, when the company, seeking to expand its online book program, began approaching European publishers.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt in an editorial in WSJ today: We have the utmost respect for the intellectual and creative effort that lies behind every grant of copyright. Copyright law, however, is all about which uses require permission and which don’t; and we believe (and have structured Google Print to ensure) that the use we make of books we scan through the Library Project is consistent with the Copyright Act, whose “fair use” balancing of the rights of copyright-holders with the public benefits of free expression and innovation allows a wide range of activity, from book quotations in reviews to parodies of pop songs — all without copyright-holder permission.

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