Following recent legal fun between publishers and Google's book searching 'Print' service, Reuters reports that German publishers are seeking to create their own version of a searchable online database.
The German association of book publishers is planning to build a network by next year that will allow the full texts of their books to be searched online by search engines but will not hand the texts over to these companies.

Google currently has agreements with publishers whereby it scans their books to allow readers to search the full texts online. The search results display only limited extracts.

In the longer term, the German association wants to build its own search engine to offer services which could rival those offered by Google, Yahoo or Lycos, and even offer readers the chance to borrow books online.
Will other publishers across the world follow suit and try to avoid Google getting a grip on their text?