$1.1 b for France to digitise its literary works

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/world/europe/15france.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=france&st=cse

France to Digitize Its Own Literary Works


By SCOTT SAYARE
Published: December 14, 2009

PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged nearly $1.1 billion on Monday toward the computer scanning of French literary works, audiovisual archives and historical documents, an announcement that underscored his government’s desire to maintain control over France’s cultural heritage in an era of digitization.

The French National Library announced in August that it was engaged in discussions with Google over the digitization of its collections, part of a global effort by Google to digitize the world’s literary works. This provoked an uproar among French officials and the publishing community here, and the discussions were suspended.

“We won’t let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is,” Mr. Sarkozy said last week, apparently in a reference to Google.

The money pledged Monday will finance a public-private partnership that will digitize the nation’s cultural works, Mr. Sarkozy said. Yet that partnership might well involve Google.

“The question remains open,” said Bruno Racine, president of the National Library, in a telephone interview. He emphasized the “necessity of a partnership with the private sector” in order to secure the capital needed for vast digitization projects.

He put the cost of digitizing the National Library’s collections, which include over 14 million books and several million other documents, at more than $1.5 billion.

Those who opposed the National Library’s discussions with Google were concerned primarily with its “dominant place” in the digital market, he said, noting, “It’s not so much that it is a private company.”

The French culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, met last week with David C. Drummond, a senior vice president and chief legal officer at Google, to express his concerns about a potential collaboration with the company.

France has long regarded Google warily. In 2005, French and German leaders announced plans, since abandoned, to develop a multimedia search engine to be called Quaero — “I seek,” in Latin — seen by many as a direct challenge to the company. The French government has also urged the European Union to undertake its own book digitization project.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is currently assessing the legality of Google’s global digitization plan. In a September submission to the court, the French Ministry of Culture wrote that the plan did not conform either to “intellectual property law or to competition law and constitutes a threat to cultural diversity.”

A modified version of Google’s settlement with groups representing book publishers and authors, submitted last month to the court, would restrict its book scanning to works published in the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.

The $1.1 billion pledged by Mr. Sarkozy is part of a $51 billion stimulus package, announced Monday, aimed primarily at French universities, researchers, manufacturers and telecommunications companies. France will finance the investments largely through government borrowing, against the urgings of the European Union and the country’s own audit authority. France’s debt and deficit are currently at record levels.