US urges court to throw out Google digital book settlement

Sep 19, 2009, 5:52 GMT

Google co-founder, Larry Page The 125-million-dollar settlement of a class-action lawsuit by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers was reached last year, paving the way for Google\'s plans to drastically expand the availability of digitized books over the internet. EPA/PETER FOLEY

   Washington - The US Justice Department said late Friday that a court should reject a settlement between Google Inc and authors and publishers because it likely violates copyright and antitrust laws.

   The 125-million-dollar settlement of a class-action lawsuit by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers was reached last year, paving the way for Google's plans to drastically expand the availability of digitized books over the internet.

   But critics and competitors such as Amazon.com said the deal would essentially allow Google a monopoly over the world's books.

   The writers and publishers agreed to work with Google to expand its BookSearch project to provide more access to out-of-print books; create new ways to purchase copyrighted books electronically; expand institutional subscriptions to colleges, universities and other organizations; and provide free electronic access to books from designated computers in US public and university libraries.

   The Justice Department said the US District Court for the Southern District of New York should not accept the settlement and argued that the parties should work toward an alternate agreement.

   The government said it supports the concept of making books available digitally but the settlement attempts to make broad changes to how copyright is handled that should be considered by legislators. It said these concerns make it especially important to closely examine any settlement.

   The department's concerns included access to so-called orphan works, or books for which the copyright is not clear; protection for foreign authors and unknown copyright holders; and competition.

   The lawsuit filed in 2005 challenged Google's BookSearch programme, which scans books and allows people to read and search an entire published work online. The project was initially fiercely opposed by authors and publishers, who feared it would rob them of revenues.

   Part of the legal settlement set up the Book Rights Registry, which would resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and cover legal fees. The organization is to pay the rights holders when institutions buy access to the full online rights and for printouts at public libraries.