The European Commission is set to take on Google Books. The latest report on the Commission's Europeana project, released on Monday, urges European Union member states to digitize collections held in all their libraries, archives and museums.

Google and the Italian Culture Ministry have signed an agreement for the digitization of books held in Italy's two main national libraries, the first such pact between the U.S. company and a national government, the two sides announced Wednesday.

The European Commission issued a call to arms to European lawmakers and those involved in the process of digitizing books Monday, urging the European Union to create a "pro-competitive European" answer to the legal arrangement Google and others seek to implement in the US

Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have been given one more month to rework their agreement to settle copyright infringement lawsuits that the author and publisher groups filed against the search company.

The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Google will get more time to modify their proposed agreement to settle lawsuits the two organizations filed against the search company over its book search service.

Google plans to accelerate its massive efforts to scan tens of millions of books and periodicals with the acquisition on Wednesday of a company called reCAPTCHA.

Google's proposed book settlement with book authors and publishers, allowing the company to digitize and sell millions of books, makes a "mockery" of copyright protections in the U.S. Constitution, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office said Thursday.

More than two dozen authors and publishers have filed an objection to a proposed settlement that would allow Google to digitize and sell millions of books, saying that the agreement ignores important privacy rights of readers and writers.

If you're concerned about the privacy implications of reading digital books, take a look at a nice guide put up yesterday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.