JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli author has sued Google Books for copyright infringement.
Yonatan Bauner’s lawsuit filed Sunday in Jerusalem District Court claims that the project, which makes millions of books publicly available for download, infringes on authors’ copyrights.
Brauner, author of the Hebrew book "Things you see from there," has asked the court to recognize the filing as a class-action lawsuit, the Israeli daily Globes reported.
According to the lawsuit, over 15 million books from more than 100 countries in 400 languages have been scanned and stored, including thousands of books in Hebrew that were published in Israel and are protected by Israeli copyright law.
Last month, a federal judge in New York overturned a November 2008 agreement between Google, on behalf of its Google Books initiative, and several groups representing American authors and publishers involving a similar lawsuit, saying it gave Google too much of an advantage over competitors.
Judge Denny Chin’s ruling called for both sides to renegotiate the settlement agreement. The judge is scheduled to meet with both sides on April 25.
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