Book Thrown at Google

But Google denies that it's violating copyright, saying that its book scanning is allowed under the legal doctrine called fair use. David Drummond, the company's general counsel, says fair use permits people to use copyright materials for purposes such as news reporting and research.

"The vast majority of the material that these libraries have is not digitized and not online," he said in interview.

But legal experts aren't so sure. "Fair use is a puzzle," said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School who teaches a course on cyber law. "There are some areas where I think it's clear. This isn't one of them."

The Association of American Publishers has questioned whether Google Print will properly compensate copyright holders. It has held talks with Google to voice its concerns. "We fully support the Authors Guild's motives and share the important concerns raised in the suit," said the organization, which represents most of the major U.S. publishers. "We hope that Google will resume the dialogue we began several months ago in an effort to seek an acceptable approach to the treatment of copyrighted works."

On Wednesday, Google rose $3.91 to $311.82.

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