November deadline set for Google book deal

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 7 Oct 2009 at 17:25

Changes to a settlement that would allow Google to put millions of books online should be presented in court by 9 November, according to the judge presiding over the case.

Google's plan has been praised for bringing broad access to books but has also been criticised on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds. Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon and others have protested that the deal would give Google an unfair stranglehold on the digital book market - an allegation refuted by the search giant.

The settlement is an effort to resolve a 2005 lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild and others.

Judge Denny Chin, of Manhattan federal court, hopes the parties will file a motion for preliminary approval of the amended deal by 9 November, so a hearing could be held in late December or early January on possible final approval.

"I like the target date of early November," Chin said during a 15-minute long conference in court with lawyers for Google, the Authors Guild and the US Justice Department. "Targeting the changes is the right way to do it."

Last month, the US Department of Justice urged Chin to reject an earlier version of the settlement. "The parties' expectation is we will present a settlement agreement," Google lawyer Daralyn Jeannine Durie told Chin.