La Martinière and Google sign agreement

"French publisher La Martinière has dropped its legal action against Google and signed an agreement with it to scan specified out-of-print French language titles. The publisher was locked in a five-year long legal battle against Google for having digitised copyrighted books without permission. The pact is similar to the one finalised last month with Hachette Livre, which was aimed to serve as a model for other French houses....La Martinière filed charges against Google in 2006 and on 18th December 2008 won a court order for €300,000 in damages, and €10,000 for each day that the contested titles remained in Google’s database. Google lodged an appeal and had been waiting for the verdict. The French publishers association and the French authors society joined La Martinière in the case but have not yet said whether they will also drop charges. If they do not, their part of the appeal will stand."