The law imposing a unique price for e-books in France has been a transient relief for the French book industry. Hachette’s decision to license some of its out-of-print works to Google to scan and sell on its future platform – while keeping control over titles and prices – caught the Ministry of French Culture, the French Literary Society (Sociéte des Gens de Lettres) and the National Union of French Publishing, flat-footed, as a Bookseller report notes. Those groups have all expressed alarm at not having been informed nor consulted at any stage of what now looks like a revolt from the previous solidarity shown by French publishers towards Google (which is still, by the way, the object of lawsuits being filed by several major publishing houses for copyright infringements).

Not only does the agreement directly conflict with the French government’s own project to digitize out-of-print 20th-Century works, it also raises a number of serious new issues, as most of the contracts involved do not actually mention digital rights.

A second deal between Google and the American branch of Hachette followed that extended Google’s action to some of Hachette’s new titles. As another Bookseller report details, the Union of French Booksellers have since brought up another worrying aspect: being now entrusted with digitizing, indexing, and distributing literary works, Google thus becomes a major supplier to booksellers while also controlling  access to their website. This definitely seems like too many hats for one head to wear in the eyes of the European Commission which, as the New York Times reported, has opened a formal antitrust investigation into the web giant last Tuesday.

In an interview with The Guardian Mark Le Fanu — general secretary of The Society of Authors warns authors on what might be a very perverse consequence of the Google agreement with Hacehette: “It will probably become more important for authors to make sure they can get their rights back when their work is no longer being sold effectively, and that they get a proper share of revenue.”

Far from being a straightforward line, the life of many books is made up of cycles where hours of glory follow phases of darkness until someone comes along and snatches it from silence and out of faith and obstinacy brings it back into the public light. To be alive, books need not only to be in print or available, they also have to be read, discussed and spoken of. They will have fewer chances to be rediscovered and to circulate again if they are indefinitely available in e-format. In that regards, the Google-Hachette pact resembles a first class funeral for many titles.