German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she opposes the massive Google Inc. book scanning project if it proceeds regardless of copyright protection.

"We reject the scanning in of books without any copyright protection, like Google is doing. The government places a lot of weight on this position on copyrights to protect writers in Germany," Merkel said in a podcast, the EUobserver reported Monday.

Merkel made her comments the weekend before the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the event Google used to announces its massive book scanning project five years ago.

Google is in the process of scanning millions of books and making them freely available, the EUobserver said.

Google signed an out-of-court agreement with the Authors Guild of America and the Association of American Publishers to donate $125 million to form a book rights registry. Authors with works registered would receive up to $60 per work plus 63 percent of the future revenues.

European publishers objected, fearing the system could undermine their businesses.

Google said millions of hard-to-find books would become available through the Internet.