The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, the court of responsible for handling large claims, has found Google guilty for putting the books online as part of its Google Books Search service after a legal challenge by the major French publishers and authors.
The court heard arguments made by the La Martiniere group that Google’s plan of digitising books and putting extracts of the text online saw publishers and authors losing out. Along with the French Publishers’ Association and the SGDL, a group that represents authors in France; they also argued that scanning of the books was an act of reproduction – and that they should receive royalties.
According to Le Monde, the search engine will be forced to pay 300,000 Euros. This was less than the 15 million Euros asked by the plaintiffs, according to Reuters. It would be also fined an additional 10,000 Euros per day until it removes the French books from its database.
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