Wednesday September 23, 03:07 AM
Delay sought in Google book case to hash out new deal
By Chris Lefkow
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) and US authors and publishers are going back to the drawing board to revise their controversial legal settlement that would allow the Internet giant to scan and sell millions of books online.
Facing a deluge of objections from the US Justice Department and others to the deal, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers asked a judge on Tuesday to delay an October 7 hearing on their settlement with Google.
"The interests of class members and of judicial economy will not be well served by holding a hearing on the present settlement agreement," they said in a filing with the US District Court in New York.
Google had agreed with the request to hold the so-called "fairness hearing" at a later date, they said. Judge Denny Chin is expected to grant the request.
The authors and publishers suggested a status conference be held on November 6 to inform the court of their progress in amending the settlement.
The Open Book Alliance, a group which includes Google rivals Amazon, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO - news) !, welcomed the request for a postponement calling it a "huge victory" and said the current settlement was "dead."
The request for a delay in the hearing came four days after the Justice Department advised Judge Chin to reject the settlement.
The Justice Department said the book-scanning project "has the potential to breathe life into millions of works that are now effectively off limits" but it raises copyright and anti-trust issues in its current form.
The department encouraged the parties to continue their discussions.
Google and the authors and publishers reached the settlement last year to a copyright infringement suit they filed against the Mountain View, California, company in 2005.
Under the settlement, Google agreed to pay 125 million dollars to resolve outstanding claims and establish an independent "Book Rights Registry," which would provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.
Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo! have filed objections to the settlement with the court along with the French and German governments, privacy advocates and consumer watchdog groups.
The Open Book Alliance, in a statement on its website, said the request for a delay was a "huge victory for the many people and organizations who raised significant concerns that this settlement did not serve the public interest, stifled innovation, and restricted competition.
"It's also an enormous loss for Google, which had been saying for months that no changes were necessary to the settlement," it said. "Now, that settlement, as we know it, is dead."
Attorneys for the authors and publishers, in their filing with the court, said Google would continue negotiations with the Justice Department aimed at addressing its concerns with the settlement.
The Justice Department raised a number of issues in opposing the settlement.
It said that presently, the settlement would give Google sole authority over so-called "orphan works" -- books whose copyright holder cannot be found -- and books by foreign rights holders.
The department recommended providing additional protections for unknown rights holders and addressing the concerns of foreign authors and publishers.
It also proposed setting up a mechanism by which Google's competitors can gain comparable access to book collections.
Google shares gained 0.41 percent in New York on Tuesday to close at 499.06 dollars.
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