Will Authors, Pubs Get Delay In Google Settlement?

Writers and publishers are asking for a postponement of their controversial settlement with Google in order to address concerns raised last week by federal antitrust regulators. The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers yesterday asked a federal judge to delay an Oct. 7 fairness hearing on the deal so they can work with Google and the U.S. Department of Justice on amending the agreement. The plaintiffs asked the court to hold a status conference Nov. 6.

The deal in question was created nearly a year ago, when the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers announced a proposal to let Google scan millions of books online as a settlement to a copyright feud that dates to 2005.

On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the court, raising concerns that the proposed agreement could face legal challenges down the road. More than 400 briefs have reportedly been filed by outside parties.

In the Justice Department's brief, several contentious issues were outlined. One issue was the assumption that authors must opt out of the settlement or they will automatically be included; another concerned Google's proposal for an algorithm that will set the price for the digital books and the ability of the competition to sell so-called orphan books, which are defined as works with unidentified or unreachable copyright holders.

Some of those concerns are currently being addressed. For instance, Google -- which did not request the settlement hearing postponement -- two weeks ago said it would allow other retailers to sell access to its archive of orphan books, and they'd be able to pocket a majority of that sales revenue.

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