An organization of book publishers including Pearson Plc’s Penguin unit and McGraw-Hill sued Google, the most-used Internet search engine, over its plan to create a digital Internet library of printed books.

Association of American Publishers sued yesterday after talks broke down with Google over copyright issues raised by the Google Print Library Project. Publishers say Google will infringe copyrights unless it gets advance permission for the scanning.

The suit is the second by the publishing industry against Google’s library plans and underscores the worries sparked by Google’s expansion beyond Web search. As Mountain View, California-based Google adds features such as books, maps and video, the company is increasingly encroaching on traditional media and taking away readers and advertising dollars.

“While authors and publishers know how useful Google’s search engine can be and think the print library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan, Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers,” the publishing group’s president, Patricia Schroeder, said in a statement.

In September, three writers and the Authors Guild, representing 8,000 authors, filed a copyright-infringement suit, also in New York federal court.

In August, the company suspended scanning copyrighted books after publishers’ criticism. That’s scheduled to resume in November, and the publishers were told they had to submit a list by then of books they don’t want scanned, the lawsuit says.

The publishers’ group said it sued after Google refused to obtain permission from publishers and authors to scan the works. The publishers are seeking a court ruling that Google can’t scan entire books covered by copyright without the permission of the copyright owners. American copyright law puts the burden on the copier, not the publisher, to arrange permission, the suit says.

The companies involved in the suit, such as trade book publisher John Wiley & Sons, do not make mass-market books so “the sale of every additional copy – in whatever medium – is significant,” the suit says.

Also suing Google are Pearson Education and Viacom’s Simon & Schuster.

“There has to be a realization that the Internet and platforms and tools like Google are making it a lot easier for a lot of people to access that content,” said Safa Rashtchy, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Company in Menlo Park, California, who rates Google shares “outperform” and doesn’t own them. “I would hope that the publishing industry would embrace it rather than try to fight it.”

The publishers’ group said it embraces the Internet and is developing its own effort, called the Open Content Alliance, to make books available to any search engine, including Google’s and that of its rival Yahoo.