Microsoft has attacked Google Inc.'s rival book scanning project. Microsoft said that Google “systematically violates copyright”. Thomas C. Rubin, an associate general counsel at Microsoft has written how Google is violating copyrights in a speech which he planned to give at the annual meeting of the Association of American Publishers in NY.

Thomas writes, "Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people's content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue."

Google and Microsoft are both planning to digitize books and make them available online. However, they differ in their approaches.

A press release informs:

Microsoft is scanning works no longer covered by copyright law, plus newer titles publishers give Microsoft explicit permission to use. Google isn't excluding copyrighted works from its scanning project, and has said the snippets of books it displays on the Web should be considered "fair use," a principle that allows limited copying of protected works for certain purposes.

However, Google denies any such obligations. "The result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content," says David C. Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and Google's chief legal officer.

The Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, a writers' trade group, is suing Google over its book-scanning plans and copyrights issue.

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