German publishers to build online book network

German publishers, keen to defend their copyrights as Internet search engines seek to put the world's literature online, aim to set up their own Web-based database allowing readers to browse, borrow or buy books.

Search engine Google has angered publishers with proposals to scan copyrighted works without permission to make them searchable online.
Critics fear that the digital repository of books it would build up would give it a monopoly over culture.

The German association of book publishers is planning to build a network by next year that will allow full texts of their books to be searched online through search engines but will not hand the texts over to these companies.

In the longer term, the German association wants to build its own search engine to offer services which could rival those offered by Google, Yahoo or Lycos, and even offer readers the chance to borrow books online.

Matthias Ulmer, who is leading the project, believes that the German project will create the first nationwide network of its kind.

In the German model, publishers would scan their books into their own servers. The publisherีs association would build a network that would allow Google or other companies to search those servers without being able to view their full content.

Ulmer said that publishers should learn lessons from the music industry, where revenues have plunged in recent years, partly due to people downloading music from the Internet for free. าWe must not make the same mistake and live in the past,ำ he said.

Ulmer admitted there would always be a danger of hackers accessing whole books online, but said the problem of copyright was centuries old, and called for a legal framework to redress any fallout from copyright breaches. าEven Goethe was angry that people copied his books,ำ he added.