Google book scanning still on hold | CNET News.com:


Google plans to resume its library book scanning "soon," a Google spokesman said Thursday.

The company had halted the scanning in August to allow copyright holders time to contact Google and opt out. At the time, the search giant said it would resume scanning on Nov. 1, but three days into the month it still had not, said spokesman Nate Tyler.

"We're getting to it. It's an operational thing," he said.

Tyler declined to be more specific about the timing, but did say that scanners will start with older parts of the participating library collections, which tend to include more public domain and out-of-print books than books still under copyright, he added.

The company is embroiled in lawsuits over its plans to scan, digitize and make searchable public domain and copyright-protected books from the university collections of Oxford, Harvard, Stanford and Michigan, and from the New York Public Library.