The Bookseller is reporting that Albin Michel, Flammarion and Gallimard are suing Google for the scanning of almost 10,000 books without permission. They are demanding €1,000 per title in damages, bringing the total to nearly €9.8m.
The €1,000 per title in damages mirrors the December 2009 court award to the La Martinière group, which sued Google for the same reason, the source said. The French Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l’Edition, SNE) and the French Writers Union (Société des Gens de Lettres, SGDL) joined La Martinière in the litigation. A verdict in Google’s appeal is still awaited.
At the 2010 Paris Book Fair, Gallimard c.e.o. Antoine Gallimard had announced that the three publishers would take legal action against Google. “It was high time to show Google that it can no longer violate authors’ rights, at least in France,” added the second source.
