Google Books Loses French Court Battle Over Copyright Infringement
A Paris court has ruled that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is guilty of violating copyrights in a case brought by French publishers against the search giant’s digital books project. Google will have to pay €300,000 ($430,000) in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere, the AP reported. The search giant was also ordered to pay €10,000 ($14,330) per day until it takes down portions of the French books from its online database. In a separate European legal proceeding, Google plans to modify the way its Street View photo mapping service operates in Switzerland, following complaints that it did not do enough to protect individuals’ privacy, Reuters reported.
The La Martiniere group, which which own the Editions du Seuil publishing house, claimed that publishers and authors works were being illegally copied and posted to the web. The company was joined in the suit by the French Publishers’ Association and authors’ group SGDL had asked that that the court hit Google with fine of 15 million euros ($21.59 million), according to a separate Reuters report.
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Google previously defended its French book scanning plans in September, arguing that just because Editions du Seuil owned the rights to distribute the physical books, the publishing house’s rights didn’t extend to electronic versions.
In the U.S., Google submitted its amended books settlement proposal to a district court last month. Among other things, Google said its books distribution would be confined to titles that were either on file with the U.S. Copyright Office or registered in the U.K., Australia, or Canada.
In the Swiss Street View case, Google’s move to change the way it photographs cityscapes comes ahead of a court ruling in that country. Under an agreement with Swiss government officials, Google can continue taking photos of roads in Switzerland as long as it provides at least a week’s notice on where photos would be taken. No new photos can be posted to its Street View service until the formal court ruling is released. As it has done in other countries, Google has promised not to lower the height of its cameras, which tend to capture faces and license plates more clearly. In the meantime, Google says it is continually trying to update the software the blurs specific images to protect individuals’ privacy.
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