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Nicolas Sarkozy joins French protest against Google Books
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is challenging Google’s digital books project amid concerns it could swallow up French literary heritage. Sarkozy says a large “friendly” American company should not be allowed to digitise French literature just because France lacks the funds for such a project itself.
"We are not going to be stripped of what generations and generations have produced in the French language, just because we weren't capable of funding our own digitisation project," says Sarkozy.
Google has already scanned 100,000 French titles. It was challenged in a French court earlier this year by publisher ÉditionsduSeuil, which argued the project violates national copyright laws. Google’s book project claims to bring broad access to millions of books worldwide, many of which are so-called ‘orphan’ works. The project has received widespread criticism from governments and authors that claim it breaches antitrust, copyright and privacy laws.
