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By Paul Biba

images.jpegSo reports EurActiv in an excellent article summarizing the current state of the Google controversy. Evidently the Information Society Commissioner, viviane Reading, supports Google’s efforts, but the Internal Market Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy differs and he has called for a hearing which will be held on September 7. Here are a few excerpts from an article that deserves to be read in full.

… According to EU figures, only 5% of all digital books are available in the recently-established and free-to-access EU library Europeana. Almost half of these come from France, while other countries with massive libraries, such as Italy, Greece, the UK or Spain, lag far behind in this process.

To speed up inclusion, Information Society Commissioner Reding is welcoming public-private partnerships and showing a very positive stance towards initiatives pursued by US giant Google. …

Behind the relatively low-profile controversy within the Commission on how to deal with Google Books looms a much deeper quarrel over who will deal with copyright issues in the next EU executive.

The issue currently forms part of the internal market portfolio, but a likely reshuffle of competencies within the Commission could put it in the hands of a stronger information society commissioner, a situation coveted by Reding (EurActiv 23/06/09).

However, France is fiercely fighting for the internal market portfolio, which currently also includes the hot dossier of financial services. The strength of the French cultural industry, which France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy has defended on many occasions, is another good reason for Paris to fight for the internal market file.

The destiny of the Google Books project is thus clearly linked to the identity of the new commissioner. Reding has shown support for it, but a French commissioner would obviously be less keen on the idea.

See, also, this article on Europe’s lack of a common web copyright solution.

 
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