French minister says EU should built their own Google books

Wed 2 December 2009 14:03, Bas van den Beld

The Google book case has been keeping us all busy. One thing is clear: several Europeans are not quite happy with the idea of Google indexing their books.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand now proposes Europe to take the book project in its own hands and put more money in Europeana. In an interview with French newspaper Journal du Dimanche due to be published this Saturday he said digitization of books should not be left to private companies.

In the article he says:

"For my part, there isn't any anti-Americanism. Nevertheless, I believe America isn't a monolith, and different opinions must be expressed. That's why I don't want the State to surrender before the markets. It's not up to this or that private group to decide policy on an issue as important as the digitization of our global heritage. I'm not going to leave this decision up to simple laissez-faire."

Europe has been working on an initiative, Europeana, for two years now. In Europeana several countries are united trying to digitize books, archives and historical images.

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