US Justice Depertment: Google books deal troubled

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Changes that Google Inc and the Authors Guild made to an ambitious plan to create a massive online library were inadequate because they fail to address antitrust and copyright concerns, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

Google's plan to put millions of books online has been praised for expanding access to books but has also been vociferously criticized on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds.

The deal was amended after the Justice Department recommended that the original settlement be rejected.

"At this time, in the view of the United States, the public interest would best be served by direction from the court encouraging the continuation of settlement discussions between the parties and, if the Court so chooses, guidance as to those aspects of the ASA (amended settlement agreement) that need to be addressed," the Justice Department said in a court filing.

The department said the proposed settlement posed potential copyright and antitrust issues, and also used a class action mechanism to "implement forward-looking business arrangements" rather than simply resolving an existing dispute.

The agreement is designed to settle a 2005 class action lawsuit filed against Google by authors and publishers who had accused the search engine giant of copyright infringement for scanning books in entire libraries.

The Justice Department, in September, recommended that it be rejected.

Faced with this and other opposition, Google and a group of authors and publishers made a series of changes to the deal in November, for example by eliminating books from most of the non-English speaking world and giving funds earned from unclaimed or orphan works to an independent fiduciary rather than the registry.

US District Judge Denny Chin has scheduled a hearing on the settlement for Feb. 18.

The case is The Authors Guild et al v. Google, Inc., US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 05-08136.