Initiating a court challenge to Google's Book Settlement, whereby the Internet search bigwig can scan digital copies of books and put extracts online, French publishers Thursday accused Google of "brutally" taking advantage of the literary legacy of France.

Under the contentious agreement that Google has signed with US authors and publishers, the company has thus far scanned nearly 10 million books through deals with libraries, publishers and authors, but not always with due permission from rights-holders.

Noting that Google is violating national copyright laws, the French Publishers' Association, publishing house La Martiniere, and SGDL authors' group have requested a Paris court to impose a 15 million euros fine on Google, along with 100,000 euros per day till the time the copyright infringement continues.

With reference to the digitization of copyright works, Yann Colin, the attorney for the publishers said: "It's an anarchic way of brutally stockpiling French heritage. Digitizing is reproduction. Once it is digitized, you can't undo it."

According to an argument put forth by Colin, the case, which targets Google's French division, should be tried under local law as it pertains to publishers, authors and scanned works in France. A ruling in the case is expected by December 18.

Meanwhile, contending the accusations, Google's lawyer said that Google is not creating a library but a book search service to bring about easy accessibility of literary works.