Paris Court Convicts Google in Copyright Case

Paris Court Convicts Google in Copyright Case

online.wsj.com

PARIS—A French court found Google Inc. guilty of copyright infringement for scanning books and publishing extracts online without a French publisher's consent, a ruling that could hinder the U.S search company's ongoing drive to create a giant global online library.

In a Friday ruling that Google said it would appeal, the court ordered the U.S. company to pay €300,000 ($501,000) to French publisher La Martinière and to remove online extracts of the publisher's books.

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After reading this I have to wonder if this is a real and proper enforcement of international intellectual property laws or is this another example of powers that be attempting to limit the free flow of information online.

What would be so wrong about a free online library that anyone in the world could access at any time? What would anyone have to fear? I do understand new released titles need to make money but what about titles that have been around for over ten years and aren't big sellers? What about text books and other learning tools? Why not...

online.wsj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by badmoviefan


Nothing would be wrong with a free online library.. I am all for that!

But.. Copy write infringement is a crime. People have the right to protect their own intellectual property.

Google's market capital is $153.4 billion as of October 5 2009.
http:/www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=google

This is a tiny fine. A slap on the wrist. Google will pay it and that will be the end of that issue. It will not effect Google' efforts to create a free online library at all.