Google and the Association of American Publishers have failed
to meet the deadline to renegotiate the controversial$125m Google Bookssettlement.
The settlement was reached after authors and publishers sued
Google over copyright violations, but it was withdrawn in response
to concerns that it would give Google too much influence.
In September, the
US Department of Justice urged the parties to modify the
settlement because of concerns that it violated competition
laws.
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.
Judge Chin granted a request from both sides to
renegotiate the settlement and set a deadline of 9 November,
but the parties instead asked for an extension, according to
US reports.
The parties have now been given until 13 November to come up
with a settlement that is acceptable to the Department of Justice
and all other stakeholders concerned about copyright
violations.
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.