Google sits on the bench for pirating French books

The Internet search company Google on Thursday sat on the bench of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris for an alleged crime of "hacking" denounced by French publishers before scanning and made freely available on the network of many of his books.
The complaint was lodged by the publisher The Martinière in June 2006 to verify that Google had digitized and posted on the Internet several of his titles in a process conducted in U.S. libraries.
Subsequently, he joined the National Union of Publishers (SNE), which groups five hundred publishing houses, and the Society of People of Letters (SGDL).
In its digitization process works to create a World Digital Library, Google included some that are subject to payment of copyright and, in that, underlying the claim of the complainants.
The head of the Martinière Hervé de Martinière denounced "this sort of arrogance that makes your books and take without asking digitize.
According to publishers, Google has digitized more than 100,000 French securities, in an agreement it signed with the great French libraries to use their funds.
The lawyer claimed that publishers stop digitizing books French under a penalty of 100,000 euros per day (147,972 dollars) and sought damages worth 15 million euros (22 million).
He said Google is "parasitizing" the work of publishers with a practice "unlawful and dangerous and harmful to publishers."
The defense focused much of his speech to try to answer the French court's competence to judge events that are occurring in America.
Moreover, the software giant's lawyers noted that concerns the digitization of short excerpts of works to develop a search tool, which they claim is covered by the right to quote and not have to pay royalties.
The verdict will be delivered on Dec. 18, but in the meantime, the editors do not rule out opening talks with Google as they just did their U.S. counterparts.

Google acquires system that prevents fraud and digitizes books

Google acquired a program developed at Carnegie Mellon that seeks to reduce spam and phishing, as it scans books.

With reCAPTCHA, the user must complete simple word games in order to register on a Web page or by completing an electronic purchase. As computers by themselves can not decipher distorted letters or numbers, the product ensures that customers really are and not automated programs that are running the board.

But reCAPTCHA offers something else: the puns come from real books, which makes the system you create digital versions of texts as users enter the words.

Google Inc. was developing a project of scanning books to place on the internet. In most cases, the "scan" and then used a program for optical character recognition engines that allow you to use in the text. However, this technique does not always work in books with impairments or with distorted letters. In such cases, the choice was typed by hand the work.

ReCAPTCHA offers another alternative to take the pieces that the computer does not recognize and separate them into individual words that are used in safety tests on the internet. Then again reCAPTCHA reconstruct the text of the book with the words entered by users.

Luis von Ahn, Carnegie Mellon professor who developed the tool and reCAPTCHA founded the company in 2008, said the program is great for Google.

Were not disclosed details of the acquisition, announced on Wednesday.

Germany joins the list of opponents of the Google Books project

The Google project of digitizing millions of books is a hitch. One more. According to the German government, Google's plans would violate German laws on copyright and the protection of the privacy of Internet users in the country.

The Google agreement reached in October 2008 with Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers Inc would, according to the complaint German digitize books of German authors without their consent.

"The agreement would violate German laws that were established to protect authors and publishers in Germany with regard to the respect of the copying, editing and digital distribution of their works." said Johannes Christian Wichard, Deputy General Manager of Commercial and Economic Law of the German Ministry of Justice.

"The final decision on this agreement will have a long-term effect, since it would create a new global regime on copyright which does not have any input from those who would be affected," Wichard said. He noted that German authors unpublished in the United States were not represented by the Authors Guild has signed the deal with Google.
Google agreed to pay $ 125 million to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers can register works and receive compensation.

But the project has been controversial from the start. On one hand it is feared that the deal gives Google the ability to set prices for the print versions, once you scan the books and get on the Net If the service becomes a necessity for libraries, they would face monopolistic prices. Google rivals Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon also recently opposed the agreement.

The U.S. Justice Department already investigating the terms of the agreement, while the forces responsible for ensuring competence in the European Union, led by Germany, have said they will study the case.
For the moment, and the agreement, the authors have until later this week to let Google know they do not want their works to be digitized. The hearing for final approval of the agreement by the U.S. justice system is scheduled for October 7.