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French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand has endorsed the idea that Google should scan some French language books, but only on the basis of swapping files with a future national platform for digitised works.
Mitterrand said he was "completely satisfied" with proposals on scanning French heritage, presented today by former French Television president Marc Tessier, and saw "no reason to exclude anything". Mitterrand plans to visit Google at its California headquarters soon and said he would insist that "respect for authors’ rights is a pre-condition for any agreement".
The proposals call for French public libraries and publishers to create a joint cooperative platform to give access to all scanned books under the same virtual roof and to form an interface with other internet sites. A law is being drafted to permit orphan works to be scanned in France.
But Tessier dismissed Google’s demand for 25 years’ commercial exclusivity over the books it digitises, as "contrary to all (reasonable) principles". Any agreement should be based on a one-to-one exchange of files Google has already scanned with those from the national platform, he added.
The public-private partnership would build on the BNF’s digital library Gallica, which would be renamed, and would aim "to create a database of French language works of a quality comparable to Google Books’ for the English language", the report said.
The legal status of the partnership and its relationship with the BNF have yet to be worked out. But each partner involved could keep its own site and other European libraries would be "invited to take advantage of its economies of scale", added the report, which was commissioned following last year’s furore over reports that the BNF was in negotiation with Google to scan some of its collection.
"Google welcomes all public-private initiatives that aim to promote French heritage and make it accessible to the largest number of people", said Philippe Colombet, Google France’s books director. "This collaboration will enrich Google Books’ index and will improve the service for internet users."
French Publishers Association (SNE) president Serge Eyrolles welcomed the initiative. The joint platform was "a good thing, especially for orphan works, although we must see how it will be managed".
Antoine Gallimard, head of the Gallimard publishing house, told The Bookseller: "We have been waiting for a decision like this for a long time," saying it meant "Google will not be able to do what it wants."
He added that publishers’ digital book distributors would link up through Dilicom, a book trade database, probably before the end of June, and that the hub created through this would work with the new national platform.
Publishers have been criticised for setting up rival distributors. Another report presented to Mitterrrand last week said a single distributor was indispensable and that the current fragmentation would be "a colossal handicap for online booksellers".