A group of photographers and illustrators seek class-action status for a suit that they filed against Google Inc. Wednesday alleging that the company is violating copyright infringement laws. The lawsuit came after Google released its plan to make millions of books available free online as digital copies.

Google reached a $125 million settlement with authors, but a Manhattan judge refused to include artists and photographers into the group, sparking the latest lawsuit. The settlement came in response to Google's plan to make digital copies of books available in libraries.

The groups represented in the suit are the American Society of Media Photographers, the Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America, the North American Nature Photography Association and the Professional Photographers of America. Two individual artists, Leif Skoogfors and Simms Taback, will also be included in the suit.

Mishcon de Reya, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that it's only right for someone to get paid when someone else uses works they have created. A spokesman for Google released a statement saying that Google Books is confident that it has complied with all copyright laws.

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