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Microsoft: Google guilty of copyright violations
Software behemoth Microsoft has accused Google of violating the copyright of content providers and said that the Google Book Search project freeloads on the talent of authors.As the two companies struggle for dominance in the online world, Microsoft associate general counsel for copyright, trademark and trade secrets Thomas Rubin said that Google "systematically violates copyright and deprives authors and publishers of an important avenue for monetising their works".
He said that, in its Book Search project, Google takes the approach of freely copying anything unless the copyright owner notifies the company and tells them to stop.
However, Google's David Drummond hit back by saying the product was designed to help users find information.
"We do this by complying with international copyright laws and the result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content," he said.
Google has so far scanned more than a million books for its Book Search, which also includes a mapping service.
Rubin also accused Google of encouraging advertisers to build advertising programs around keywords that refer to pirated software.
Microsoft News posted on 07 March 2007
