Word: european
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...start, with U.S. publishers accusing the Internet giant of copyright infringement. Google eventually came to an agreement with them over the issue. But as a New York court tries to decide whether or not the agreement is legitimate, it's now Europe's turn to cry foul, with European publishers complaining the settlement is unfair...
...agreement may have appeased U.S. publishers, but their counterparts in Europe, along with some European governments, are up in arms over it. More than half the books scanned and digitized by Google are not of American origin, but European books aren't expressly covered by the settlement. This has raised the fear that Google could sell books that are out of print in the U.S. but not elsewhere to U.S. users without paying European rights holders a penny. "It is clearly discriminatory towards E.U. rights holders," Anne Bergman of the European Federation of Publishers wrote to TIME...
...meantime, the European Union has started hearings of its own to look into the digital future of the book. Just before they started in Brussels on Monday, Google suddenly made some conciliatory gestures towards its European critics. "Books that are commercially available in Europe will be treated as commercially available under the Settlement," the Internet giant said in letters sent to various European publishers' associations. In other words: If a book is out of print in the U.S., but still for sale in Europe, Google would not consider it out of print, and therefore cannot sell it digitally in America...
...That's not enough for European publishers, however. "This is not much more than a tired PR maneuver," says Christian Sprang of the German Booksellers and Publishers Association. "I don't believe Google is really interested in a compromise." At the E.U. hearings in Brussels, the representatives of publishing groups and governments from Italy, Spain and France have been expressing similar fears. According to the International Herald Tribune, a spokesman for the French Ministry of Culture repeated France's long-held stance that Google's book project was a risk to cultural diversity, speculating that Google might withhold access...
...Environmental groups were thrilled by the news. "It's a very brave decision," says Aaron MacLoughlin, the World Wildlife Fund's head of European marine programs. "For fishing nations like Malta and Greece to reach this agreement takes courage...