Toner News Mobile › Forums › Latest Industry News › *NEWS*GOOGLE SPARKS FRENCH WAR OF WORDS
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AnonymousInactiveGoogle book plan sparks French war of words
PARIS – France’s
national library has raised a “warcry” over plans by Google to put books from
some of the world’s great libraries on the Internet and wants to ensure the
project does not lead a domination of American ideas.Jean-Noel
Jeanneney, who heads France’s national library and is a noted historian, says
Google’s choice of works is likely to favour Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English
language.He wants the
European Union to balance this with its own programme and its own Internet
search engines.“It is not a
question of despising Anglo-Saxon views … It is just that in the simple act of
making a choice, you impose a certain view of things,” Jeanneney told Reuters in
a telephone interview on Friday.“I favour a
multi-polar view of the world in the 21st century,” he said. “I don’t want the
French Revolution retold just by books chosen by the United States. The picture
presented may not be less good or less bad, but it will not be ours.”Jeanneney says he
is not anti-American, and that he wants better relations between Europe and the
United States. But like French President Jacques Chirac, he says he wants a
multi-polar world in which U.S. views are not the only ones that are
heard.His views are
making waves among intellectuals in France, where many people are wary of the
impact of American ways and ideas on the French language and culture.But he says he has
heard nothing from politicians in Paris or Brussels, days before U.S. President
George Bush visits the European Union’s headquarters and NATO.“On the eve of
George Bush’s arrival in Europe, the president of the National Library of France
is sounding a warcry … he is seeking a French and European crusade,” Le Figaro
newspaper said on Friday.California-based
Google Inc. said last December it would scan millions of books and periodicals
into its popular search engine over the next few years.Its partners in the
project are Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University, the
University of Michigan and the New York Public Library.Google says the
project will promote knowledge by making it more easily and more widely
accessible. It aims to make money by attracting people to its Web site and to
its advertisements.The impact this
might have on attendance at world libraries is not yet clear. But Jeanneney
expressed his concerns in an article published by Le Monde newspaper late last
month.“Here we find a
risk of crushing domination by America in defining the idea that future
generations have of the world,” he wrote, urging the EU to act fast.He pushed his
campaign forward this week by announcing the national library would make
editions of 22 French periodicals and newspapers dating back to the 19th century
available on the Internet. -
AuthorFebruary 25, 2005 at 9:10 AM
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