Google has been sued for copyright infringement over the book scanning under their Library Program. The class action lawsuit was filed by the Authors Guild, and authors Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles, and Daniel Hoffman.

Google is in the process of scanning books from libraries around the world and putting them online. But is it copyright infringement? Should Google be allowed to scan books and put them online even when the books are not in the public domain, and are subject to copyright protection? Some say yes, others say no.

The Google Book Store or, perhaps more accurately, the Google eBook Store, was officially launched today. The store, stocked with at least 3 million books, allows you to download Google books from the Google eBookstore to your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android phone or device, the Sony Reader, and even the Barnes and Noble Nook, as well as to read Google eBooks with your browser.

It’s no secret that Google is scanning entire books and putting them on the Internet. In fact, we reported their first wholesale scanning project – scanning books from five major libraries – more than four years ago. That lead to outcries and debates over whether Google’s scanning of books was copyright infringement, and sure enough, in what seemed like a New York minute, the Author’s Guild sued Google over that scanning.

Google has announced that they are going to start selling downloadable books online, putting them in direct competition with Amazon’s plans to do the same.

HarperCollins plans to digitize 20,000 books from their publishing catalog. They say that it will protect their copyright, but how?

Customers will soon be able to access books on Amazon on a pay-per-page basis, as well as have digital access to the entire contents of books which they have already purchased. Random House is going to a pay per page model as well.

Last week we reported that the Amazon Kindle was getting an app store and lots of new applications, and we asked the question, “but why?” Among other things, we pointed out that with the lack of a touch screen, any applications for the Kindle would be severely limited in terms of functionality, usefulness, and just plain fun. (You can read our discussion of Amazon announcing Applications for the Kindle here.) Well, guess what. It seems that the Kindle is getting a touch screen.