The American Society of Media Photographers has filed a lawsuit against Google over its Book Search, which aims to make a digital library of scanned books, The Register reported today. The service is also being sued by American authors and publishers.

The photographers' trade association states in the suit that Google is illegally scanning and displaying millions of books without getting approval from those who control the rights to photos and other artwork within the titles. The lawsuit is seeking compensation from Google, and is similar to the lawsuit brought by writers over the same issue.

"If there is going to be a system developed to manage the compensation for these types of books, we felt visual artists need to be represented," Eugene Mopsik, the executive director of the ASMP, told Wired in an interview. "We have been totally excluded. We want a seat at the table."

However, the Author's Guild and other publishing groups have agreed to allow Google to scan their books, sell them online and allow them to be included in search, according to Wired. Those that hold rights to the content get 67 percent of the profits, and Google gets the remaining 33 percent.

The Google Books legal action was first filed in 2005 by writers, and it is expected to be settled soon, CNN reported.

"We are seeking justice and fair compensation for visual artists whose work appears in the twelve million books and other publications Google has illegally scanned to date. In doing so, we are giving voice to thousands of disenfranchised creators of visual artworks whose rights we hope to enforce through this class action," the ASMP said in a statement, released yesterday.

However, Google feels it is "fully compliant with U.S. and international copyright law," Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker told CNN in an e-mail. "Google Books is an historic effort to make all of the knowledge contained within the world's books searchable online. It exposes readers to information they might not otherwise see, and it provides authors and publishers with a new way to be found."