Now France Fines Google For Scanning French Books

from the the-war-on-google dept

Fri, Dec 18th 2009 3:35pm — Mike Masnick

With France gearing up to dump another billion dollars at its own anti-Google book scanning project, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that a French court has ruled that Google's book scanning project violates copyright law. It's also fining Google 10,000 euros per day until it removes the books in question. Better solution: just block people from French IPs from accessing Google Books.

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Filed Under: book scanning, copyright, fines, france
Companies: google

25 Comments

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Brian (profile), 18 Dec 2009 @ 3:30pm

France just wants money to finance its next fiasco and so they can say they have finally won their first battle :P
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 3:43pm

they'll give up soon enough, its the french tradition
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 3:52pm

Even better etter solution: just block people from French IPs from accessing Google.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 3:53pm

Re:
Oops, should just be "Even better solution"
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 18 Dec 2009 @ 4:15pm

Well it's obvious...
...they want to use the Googlebooks fine to finance their scanning project.
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Jay Seven, 18 Dec 2009 @ 4:49pm

Please Google...
Just block all of France for 24 hours and then ask them "What now, bitches?". That would be epic!
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Nina Paley (profile), 18 Dec 2009 @ 5:24pm

Re: Please Google...
I like that idea.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 18 Dec 2009 @ 6:51pm

Re: Please Google...
Yeah, they didn't do that when confronted with Belgium (or whatever) publishers. Not likely they'll stand up for themselves (and vicariously ourselves) now.
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*, 18 Dec 2009 @ 7:05pm

If blocked they just go around.
Hmmm...I think the french would just use bing or yahoo.

Like I'm right now, Google doesn't work with proxies heavily used, and frankly I don't care that much.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 7:32pm

10,000 Euro's per day? Yeh that might bankrupt Google in under a Millenium, they should probably comply....
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 7:36pm

French aspires to be a dead language. We should just let them have their aspirations.
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Dan, 18 Dec 2009 @ 7:43pm

So dump the index, who cares. Its 100,000 books that no one else reads, they can languish in oblivion.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 8:40pm

Re:
How about blocking France as a whole from the internet?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2009 @ 8:54pm

One word: excerpts.

Another two words: Fair Use.

That is all.
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and its funny, 19 Dec 2009 @ 2:15am

I hear google offerd 1$ per item
just like the president of France did for pirating that bands music .....

hey
sarkozy ....NO ONE CARES ABOUT FRANCE, even french canadians want nothing to do with you
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PaulT (profile), 19 Dec 2009 @ 5:09am

Re:
Another word: France. What makes you think that fair use rights are the same in France as they are where you are?
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thornintheside, 19 Dec 2009 @ 1:01pm

just boycott French products
I decided several years ago to completely boycott anything French and have stopped buying anything that is MADE IN FRANCE. I suggest anyone who doesn't like French policies to do the same. Like French wine? American and Australian wines are better. Like Champagne? Try something called sparkling wine, cheaper and better. Other than that, not much comes out of France besides whining. they should have whined louder in WW2 instead of becoming friends with the Nazi's.
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Fredrik, 19 Dec 2009 @ 1:16pm

Not a solution
"Better solution: just block people from French IPs from accessing Google Books."

How does that change the fact its still illegal to for Google to scan the books? It's not showing unauthorized books that is being fined.
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lg, 19 Dec 2009 @ 2:31pm

Obvious bias
As much as I enjoy techdirt, this article has an obvious anti-French bias. On the one side, France's government/cultural institutions with their anti-Google stance on their own book scanning project. On the other side, the judicial system (you know, _different_ from the government) that ruled on a spat between Google and some french publishers, because that's the usual way to resolve legal disagreement. Why make a link about two points that may seem related but concern different bodies ? It's not because one is being bitchy about Google's project that it must undermine a ruling on a specific subject. Which might be much more related to some kind of disagreement between Google and US publishers which you seem to have forgotten about, blinded by your bias.
So please grow up from your "Google good", "publishers wrong", "stupid French" and "I am not going to think a lot about this, so much easier to entertain my main US readership for a good laugh" that is so represented by your last sentence. As you often pointed out, the devil's in the details.
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tracker, 19 Dec 2009 @ 2:56pm

Re: just boycott French products
Maybe you just better brush up on your history - didn't you ever read about the french resistance?? - also, I wonder how brave and daring you would have been in those circumstances?? I'm not french. I love france, but it isn't for the plebs so maybe it's a good idea for you to stay well clear :)
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PT (profile), 19 Dec 2009 @ 11:55pm

They must be crazy
The French have taken leave of their senses. This country, which is so proud and defensive of its language that it has a special government department to keep it pure; that persuades its vassal states (eg Quebec) to forbid the use of other languages when at all possible; this country has consigned the bulk of its literature to oblivion. Give it another ten years, maybe less, but twenty at the most, and there won't BE any books or libraries for most people. After a few more legal hiccups, everything printed will be available online, and all reading will be done online. And to find it, people will use a search engine. What's not indexed and available will be lost.
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thornintheside, 20 Dec 2009 @ 12:34pm

Re: Re: just boycott French products
So according to you, its OK that the French cozied up to the Nazi's in WW2 because there was a French resistance? Please stay in France then with all your other brave and daring French friends who will bend over and take it from the Nazi's when they come knocking on the doors looking for "plebs"
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Mike Masnick (profile), 20 Dec 2009 @ 8:52pm

Re: Obvious bias
As much as I enjoy techdirt, this article has an obvious anti-French bias.

Not at all. We write good things about the French when they do good things. I have nothing against the French at all, and actually have plenty of good things to say about France and the French people.

On the one side, France's government/cultural institutions with their anti-Google stance on their own book scanning project. On the other side, the judicial system (you know, _different_ from the government) that ruled on a spat between Google and some french publishers, because that's the usual way to resolve legal disagreement. Why make a link about two points that may seem related but concern different bodies ?

Because they're both about France and both about Google's book scanning project. So it would actually be negligent on my part not to mention both together.

Which might be much more related to some kind of disagreement between Google and US publishers which you seem to have forgotten about, blinded by your bias.

What "bias" do you speak of? I've been just as critical of US publishers and their attacks on Google. It's got nothing to do with bias.

So please grow up from your "Google good", "publishers wrong", "stupid French" and "I am not going to think a lot about this, so much easier to entertain my main US readership for a good laugh" that is so represented by your last sentence.

None of those statements are necessarily true or reflective of my views.

I could just as easily ask you to grow up from your simplistic "Techdirt must hate the French" "Techdirt must love Google" bias in your comment. But that would be ridiculous, right? So why throw that in my direction?
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Eric, 21 Dec 2009 @ 1:05am

Bias there is, but not in the article
Same thing would have happened in another country, it would have been all "erf, governments and corporations cozying up to make sure they remain in control" - which is what the debate is about, last time I checked. But just because it happens in France, then it must be because of the French, I'm sure. Costs nothing to bash France these days, so why not do it, right?

And that comment about Nazi-occupied France? I'm sure you can find anti-French websites here and there, so please don't come and sully up the comment section of an open-minded website.
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Insurance Telemarketing, 21 Dec 2009 @ 9:49am

Give it 5 hours. Franc'll stop whining. Haha
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