BRITISH book publishers are considering legal action against Google over the search engine company’s plans to create a virtual library by digitising millions of books held in public libraries and universities.

The Publishers Association yesterday refused to rule out taking legal action over Google’s Print Project, saying that it was holding a “full and frank debate” with the company and other parties.

The comments came after it emerged that the Authors Guild, which represents 8,000 authors, has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the internet company of “massive copyright infringements” at the expense of the rights of individual writers. The suit, filed in a district court in New York, demands damages and an injunction against further alleged infringements.

Nick Taylor, president of the Authors Guild, said that Google’s library scheme represented a “plain and brazen violation of copyright law . . . It is not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied.”

Five of the world’s most famous libraries, including the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, have agreed to have books scanned by Google and posted online. However, after complaints from several groups about potential copyright infringement, Google has agreed to stop scanning copyright protected books until November.

Although the Bodleian says that it has chosen 19th-century books to avoid issues over copyright, other participants, including Harvard, plan to provide randomly selected shelves of books for scanning. Some groups fear that Google will be unable to ascertain which books are still copyrighted.

Generally, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, but in Britain new editions of otherwise out-of-copyright works enjoy a further 25-year protection period.

Google said that the scanning break would give publishers time to alert it to books they “prefer we would not scan”. It emphasised that it was respecting copyright.

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