Merkel attacks Google’s book project

France may have reluctantly accepted Google’s plan to build a massive digital library of the world’s books but now German Chancellor Angela Merkel has waded into the debate on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair, appealing for more international copyright protection and saying that her government opposed Google’s drive for the giant online library full of the world’s books, warning of “considerable dangers” for copyright protection in the internet.

Google has already scanned in 10 million books but, in her weekly video podcast, Merkel said

“the Government has a clear position: copyrights have to be protected on the internet”.

In the US a court approved settlement between publishers and authors and Google is in its final stages with a lump sum payment and ongoing royalties payable for the use of literary copyrights -- but German book publishers have criticised European regulators for failing to oppose the settlement.

The Observer 11th October 2009, p35