On Thursday, Sept. 24 the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York indefinitely delayed the settlement between Google and the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and other plaintiffs. The suit was over the company’s plans to scan all of the books from major libraries and include them in a database. Authors and publishers had protested copyright infringement, but after two years an agreement was reached.
Now, the plaintiffs have filed and been granted a motion to delay, which Google did not oppose, because of growing criticism of the proposed settlement. On Friday Sept. 18, the U.S. Justice Department asked the New York court to reject the deal citing “class action, copyright, and antitrust” issues.
“The current settlement agreement raises significant issues, as demonstrated not only by the number of objections, but also by the fact that the objectors include countries, states, nonprofit organizations, and prominent authors and law professors,” wrote Judge Chin. “Clearly, fair concerns have been raised.”
The original agreement included five major points:
- More Access to Out-of-Print Books
- Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books
- Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online
- Free Access From U.S. Libraries
- Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Work
“Justice Department urges court to reject Google book deal”
CNN
“Google Books Settlement Delayed Indefinitely”
The New York Times
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