Microsoft spoke out this week against Google's seemingly endless information gathering, accusing the search giant of breaching copyright laws. The focus of Microsoft's concern is Google's 'Book Search' service. Google archives a large number of books and makes them searchable online, allowing users to read them while usually restricting them to limited previews. This is often seen as an integral part of Google's 'mission' to organise all of the world's information into a searchable online system.
Microsoft lawyer Tom Rubin, who watches over the company's copyright and intellectual property disputes, accused:
"Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop."
Last month Google was at the centre of another copyright row with media giant Viacom over the use of copyrighted material on video sharing website, YouTube, and Mr Rubin also cited this as further evidence of what Microsoft sees as Google's seemingly casual attitude to copyright issues.
However, Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, defended his company's practices and highlighted that, far from causing copyright holders any aggravation, they have helped authors and publishers of content. Mr Drummon stated:
"[We comply] with international copyright laws, and the result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content".
Google has scanned and added over one million books to its search library since the launch of Book Search in 2004 and is careful of how much information it releases when a user carries out a search for a book. In November 2006, a member of Google's Book Search Team stated on the official Book search blog:
"Since whether a book is in the public domain can often be a tricky legal question, we err on the side of caution and display at most a few snippets until we have determined that the book has entered the public domain."
Only these public domain books can be read or downloaded from Google Book Search in their entirety.
Microsoft recently launched its own version of Book Search called Windows Live Search: Books. They are working with libraries across the globe, including The British Library in London, to make sure that they scan suitable books and invite publishers to voluntarily send their books to Microsoft in order to be scanned.
