Final US court approval of the controversial
$125m Google Books settlement with US authors and publishers
has been delayed.
The federal judge in New York tasked with reviewing the
settlement has granted requests from both sides to renegotiate the
deal.
Judge Denny Chin of the US District Court for the Southern
District of New York had been scheduled to oversee a hearing on 7
October on whether to approve the deal reached in 2008.
He said it did not make sense to go ahead with the hearing
because it appears that the current settlement agreement will be
the operative one.
Last week the US
Department of Justice urged the parties to modify the
settlement because of concerns that it violated competition laws,
according to
Reuters.
The deal set up to allow Google to sell digital versions of
out-of-print, copyrighted books has raised US and European concerns
about how it will affect international copyright law.
German publishers yesterday criticised European regulators for
failing to take a stand against the US deal to allow Google to
create an online library.
Instead of the hearing on October 7, the judge scheduled a
"status conference" on that date to determine how to proceed with
the case.
French publishers
challenging the legality of Google's book scanning project in a
Paris court yesterday accused Google of "brutally" exploiting
France's literary heritage.
They asked the court to fine Google $22.09 million and $150,000
for each day it continues to violate copyright by digitising their
books.
Despite this widespread and growing opposition, Google argues
that scanning and publishing millions of books online makes access
to information on the web more democratic.