Google faces critics of digital books project in court

The book trade is waiting to hear the outcome of a New York court case, which will see Google face critics of its agreement with US publishers to produce digital copies of published books.

Amazon, Microsoft and a number of publishers are amongst 26 parties giving evidence to Judge Denny Chin. The search giant's massive book scanning scheme is also under investigation from Department of Justice and European regulators.

Google announced its plan to make digital copies of 10 million volumes by 2015 and create a vast library of electronic books back in 2004. While few in the publishing world were against the idea of a global digital library, there was objection to it being controlled by one commercial entity. Fears were raised about the wisdom of letting Google hold a monopoly on content and any possible commercial exploitation of the work.

In the US, Google worked out a deal with the Authors Guild of America, the Association of American Publishers and five big publishing firms. The settlement involved Google paying $125m (£77m) to set up a Book Rights Registry through which publishers and authors could register their works and get compensation.

For many, the compensation will be miniscule and Google remains able to exploit digital content as it sees fit. Google also claimed control over ‘orphaned’ works - titles with either no copyright holder or where the copyright holder could not be found.

In February 2010, The US Department of Justice asked for the deal , saying it failed to address anti-trust and copyright concerns. It also voiced worries about authors having to opt out.

In Europe, the European Commission wants Google to take more notice of copyright outside the US. Many books out of copyright in the US are still subject to those laws in many European nations.

The Commission wants Google to negotiate separately with each publisher in Europe to ensure it does not violate local laws. Europe has its own digital library project called Europeana.