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French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand has reacted extremely cautiously to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed yesterday for Google to scan French-language out-of-print books for Hachette Livre.
The minister said he regrets that France's largest publisher acted unilaterally before the French book business adopts a common strategy on the issue.
Talks about digitisation under the Investments for the Future programme are in progress among French publishers, authors and the culture ministry to ensure that creative rights, the economic interests of the sector--including booksellers--and the expectations of the general public are preserved, Mitterrand said in a statement. He intends "to consult the main players concerned rapidly to ensure that the publishing sector works out a common strategy".
The six-month memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed in Paris yesterday for Google to scan Hachette Livre's choice of titles among the 40,000 to 50,000 out-or-print works for which it controls the rights.
Warning that the MOU must "respect the principles defined within the framework of these consultations", Mitterrand said he had told Google in the last few days that he attaches great importance to the issue and that his priority was for respect of authors' and publishers' copyright to be assured before the U.S. concern began working with major institutions like the French National Library. He "will remain attentive to the results of the (legal) procedures underway in the United States", where a settlement between authors and Google is awaiting approval by the courts.
French Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l'Edition, SNE) president Antoine Gallimard welcomed yesterday's agreement, but with reservations. It "shows an unprecedented change of attitude", he told the French trade weekly Livres Hebdo. Google clearly recognises that it cannot apply fair use in France and that it should stop digitising books without permission, he said. Although the deal could help the publishing industry resolve the problem of orphan works, he added he was uncertain how booksellers would benefit from it and whether Google actually would follow through on its word and stop digitising without permission.
The SNE is due to release a statement on the issue later today.