A French press group won a favorable award against Google in connection with book digitization. (Full disclosure: I practiced law with the press group’s lead lawyer in the ’90s.) Google will likely appeal that judgment, and the appellate court may rule in its favor.
It would be a mistake to read too much into this award. Far from resisting digitization, the French state has long embraced it.
According to urban legend, president Mitterrand favored relocating the collections of the French National Library in towers –rather than underground, as most libraries do– because he was convinced that books soon would be digitized, making paper copies superfluous other than as collectible objects.
More recently, president Sarkozy has earmarked some €750 million to digitizing collections in the French National Library. Although it’s possible that this effort will become an alternative to Google, it’s also possible that French actors, public and private, will team up with Google in the future.
