Google has been called on to defend its Books project in the French courts after a publisher accused it of copyright infringement on Thursday.

Editions du Seuil is seeking €18m damages from the search giant for scanning its books without permission, Bloomberg reports.

"The act of digitizing is to copy. It is a considerable harm because it is irreversible. How can you take back what is made electronic?" said Yann Colin, publisher's lawyer.

The court is due to rule on 18 December. Google denies Editions du Seuil has electronic copyright.

Meanwhile in New York yesterday, the judgment on Google $125m copyright settlement with US authors and publishers was delayed until 7 October. ®

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