McGraw-Hill Cos. and the Authors Guild, along with other publishers and authors, contend that a Google project to digitize the libraries of four major U.S. universities, as well as portions of the New York Public Libary and Oxford University's libraries, ignores the rights of copyright holders in favor of Google's economic self-interest.

The publishers support a separate book-scanning effort, known as the Open Content Alliance, that was conceived by Yahoo and the non-profit Internet Archive, Microsoft joined the alliance last year and has said it will launch its own book project similar to Google's.

Mercury News San Jose [mercurynews.com]