Google (NSDQ: GOOG) narrowed the scope of its US-only digital books project to just include English language titles after sustained pressure from European publishers and national governments to take their books out of the scheme. But the French still aren’t happy and accuse Google of pirating non-English works…
Google scaled back plans to provide millions of out of print works to US readers online — yet the French Publisher’s Association (SNE) declared on Thursday (pdf, in French, via AFP) that the new proposals aren’t good enough and “do not mark any progress on the essential question of non-English language works pirated by Google.”
SNE has an on-going court case against Google — joined by publisher Editions du Seuil — calling for compensation because the company digitised French books without asking first, even though it’s now agreed not to publish them. Digitising without consent is legal under US fair use law, but it doesn’t wash under European rules, SNE argues. The group wants Google to “respect the essential principle of prior consent”, meaning it won’t be happy until the search giant stops digitising French books altogether.

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