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PARIS, Jun 6, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The parent company of Google is coming under fire from a French publisher claiming the search engine violates copyright laws.
The BBC reports that the book publisher La Martiniere says Google has digitized about 100 of its books. Google scans millions of books, giving full access to those in the public domain and access to excerpts of copyrighted works.
When the law suit is filed, it will name Google France and its U.S. parent company Google Inc, the BBC reports.
La Martiniere owns the French company Le Seuil and is seeking over $128,000 for each book involved in the copyright infringement.
"That means that if Google breaches a ban... imposed by the court at the end of the proceedings, it would cost Google very dear to carry on." Yann Colin, La Martiniere's lawyer, told the BBC.
Google said most scanned works are not by living authors.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
