Publishers Sue Google Over Scanning Plans

Just weeks after a leading authors organization sued Google Inc. for copyright infringement, the Assn. of American Publishers also has filed suit against the search engine giant’s plans to scan and index books for the Internet.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan named five publishers as plaintiffs: McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group USA, Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons. The suit seeks recovery of legal costs, but no additional damages.

Google called the legal action “short-sighted” and said the project was a “historic effort to make millions of books easier for people to find and buy.”