EU asks publishers for feedback on Google Books

BRUSSELS - European Union regulators said Monday they are asking publishers and authors for feedback on how Google Inc's book-scanning project will affect copyright in Europe.

They plan to meet with copyright-holders Sept. 7 to evaluate a $125 million settlement between Google and U.S. publishers.

EU spokesman Oliver Drewes said officials wanted to collect the views of European publishers, authors and consumers to help them "draw provisional conclusions on the Google Inc.'s book-scanning settlement."

Google was not immediately available for comment.

In the U.S., the Justice Department is considering legal action over the deal, which critics contend could give Google too much control over the electronic copies of millions of copyright-protected books that are no longer in print.

Google believes the settlement would improve access to books that are mostly gathering dust at libraries across the United States.

The EU's top technology official Viviane Reding said earlier this month that the EU urgently needed to standardize its complicated copyright laws to encourage book digitization.

She said copyright cannot be traced for more than 90 percent of books in Europe's national libraries and this was holding back a European Commission-backed answer to the Google project, Europeana.

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