The New York Times reports today that the Authors Guild has sued Google Print for “massive copyright infringment” (according to the language of the complaint). The fact that (a) no one can download a complete work, or even most of one, that’s protected by our copyright law (you can get only snippets, based on Google searches), and (b) the service will almost certainly result in more sales rather than fewer sales, seems to have escaped the plaintiffs.

The Times story ends by noting that some publishers have voluntarily given over their works to Google for the Google Print project — “Most of the large commercial publishing houses have submitted books to Google for scanning, in the hope that the program will lead users to find and buy their books more easily.” So at least some publishers are aware that reflexively screaming “Infringement!” is not the best way to make money for themselves and their authors.