The French want to do it themselves because...they're French.

http://tinyurl.com/ydkwdle
French technology upstart challenges Google By GREG KELLER, AP PARIS – France's efforts to digitize its culture, from Marcel Proust's manuscripts to the first films of the legendary Lumiere brothers, long have been bogged down by the country's reluctance to rely on help from American Internet giant Google Inc.
A new startup launched Thursday says it may be the answer.
The consortium of French technology companies and government-backed information-technology research labs says it can provide the know-how needed by Europe's libraries, universities, publishers and others to scan, catalog and deliver to end users the contents of their archives — better than Google can.
The consortium's partners have studied the results of Google Books' scanning efforts, "and we know that we can do better," said Alain Pierrot, one of the project's leaders.
"We also know we have a ways to go, in productivity, in quality, in profitability. And we set up the consortium to do exactly that," Pierrot said at a news conference to present the project...
****There is usually the fact that THE First Mover Advantage doesn't exist but there are categories of FMAs. In this case, Google has a headstart in building a database of scanned documents and the User Multiplier Effect ( or Metcalfe Effect ) obtains. Goog has 10M scanned to the new company's 1M and that lead is likely to increase. The putative advantages of the French project ( "we've looked at what they've done and we can do better" )are run-of-the-mill and can always be said by those following pioneers. Unless they can identify something that Google has been doing wrong, and do it better, their venture is doomed except for whatever parochial exclusivity is mandated by the French government and that will require subsidies and waiting. They are also chasing a moving target since Google can improve their offerings continually unless the French have access to technology for which Google has barriers.****