October 11th, 2009
Merkel slams Google Books scanning
Reuters reports that German Chancellor Andrea Merkel took the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair to criticize Google’s book scanning operation and the the Google Books deal.
The German government has a clear position: copyrights have to be protected in the Internet,” Merkel said, adding there are “considerable dangers” for copyright protection in the Internet.
“That’s why we reject the scanning in of books without any copyright protection — like Google is doing. The government places a lot of weight on this position on copyrights to protect writers in Germany.”
Germany filed an opposition brief in the Google Books settlement, complaining that approval would allow Google to “flout German laws that have been established to protect German authors and publishers, including with respect to digital copying, publishing and the dissemination of their works.”
