Europeans vote to give Google Book deal a hard time

More trouble (read: good news) in the Google Books settlement. EurActiv reports that EU ministers will recommend the European Commission investigate the implications of the settlement on European authors. A source told the site:

Several member states will raise concerns during the meeting, but it is too early to say what steps could be taken.

Ministers want to see the "right balance" between opening up books to public access and protecting authors' rights. Germany and France raised concern about the deal at a meeting of culture ministers and were the drivers of the decision this week.

And if the EC fails to act, said "one of the Union's largest member states" (I would read that as Germany):

Governments won't hesitate to proceed alone ... We cannot let this happen.

Says Sergey:

We love books at Google, and our fondest dream is that Book Search will evolve into a service that ensures that books, along with their authors and publishers, will flourish for many years into the future.