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July 12, 2005, 01:22 PM ET

More Criticism of Google Scanning Project

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers is calling on Google to stop scanning copyrighted material as part of its deal with five research libraries to digitize millions of books. In a statement on its Web site, the London-based group, which represents 340 nonprofit publishers in 30 countries, says: “We cannot believe that a business which prides itself on its cooperation with publishers could seriously wish to build part of its business on a basis of copyright infringement.”

Google has drawn similar complaints from other publishers for its plans to scan some copyrighted library books and allow full-text searches of the volumes through its popular search engine. The company says it will offer only short excerpts of copyrighted works online—which its officials claim is legal under the fair-use doctrine. Publishers say Google must get permission even to make a digital copy of works under copyright.

For more on the debate over Google’s library project, see an article from The Chronicle by Dan Carnevale and Jeffrey R. Young.

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