Google should pay authors for scanned books, US appeals court told

ON TENTERHOOKS: Google could be on the hook for billions of dollars in damages if the authors prevail in the lawsuit.

NEW YORK: Google Inc's massive effort to scan millions of books for a digital library violates copyright law, illegally depriving authors of licensing fees, royalties and sales, a lawyer for a group of authors told a US appeals court. 

Paul Smith, who represents the Authors Guild and several individual writers, told a three-judge panel at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that the Google Books project was a "quintessentially commercial" infringement designed to protect the company's "crown jewel" search engine.