The Open Content Alliance (OCA), launched this month by digital archivists and backed by Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe, says it has also signed up Microsoft Corp. and more than a dozen major libraries in North America, Britain and Europe in its effort to challenge Google in digitizing many of the world's great books, reports Reuters. Microsoft will be funding the digital duplication of 150,000 old books over the next year. Meanwhile, Google and the publishing industry have come to legal blows over Google's plan to create a digital library.

"This is just the start," Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and the organizing force behind the OCA. "One hundred and fifty thousand books is just an initial test for Microsoft," he said.

Some backers of Google Print have reportedly expressed disappointment that the two groups are not working together, but leaders on both sides say they inevitably will: "I think it's only a matter of time before we reach agreement," said Rick Prellinger, board president of the Internet Archive and the director of the newly formed OCA.