Revised Google Books Settlement Gets Extension Til Friday

The Author's Guild and Google have delayed the submission of a revised settlement regarding Google Books until Friday, an attorney for the Guild told a New York district judge Monday.

"I write to advise the court that [the Guild] expect to file their motion seeking preliminary approval of the amended settlement by no later than Friday, November 13, 2009," attorney Michael Boni wrote to Judge Denny Chin.

The judge approved the request.

In late September, the Department of Justice urged the court to reject the search engine giant's $125 million class-action settlement in its current form. The agency was concerned that Google had no financial incentive to track down rights holders for its book repository and questioned whether the court was the proper venue to settle the matter.

About a week after the DOJ issued its report, the two sides were scheduled to appear at a hearing on the matter, but Judge Chin delayed that meeting after the parties asked for extra time in order to address the DOJ's concerns. He then set a deadline of Nov. 9.

"The parties have been working diligently on completing and filing the amended settlement agreement," Boni wrote. "The parties have been in discussions with the Department of Justice both prior to and since the October 7 status conference."

The debate dates back to 2004, when Google partnered with major university libraries to scan their collections and make them available on the Internet. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Author's Guild sued Google for copyright infringement in 2005. In October 2008, the two sides announced a $125 million agreement that would create a registry of online books, and allow U.S. consumers and institutions to purchase access to that material.

In addition to the DOJ, however, the settlement has drawn complaints from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, and has received attention from members of Congress.

- From PC MAGAZINE