Judge rejects Google Books settlement

A federal judge has rejected Google's revised settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed against its proposed online digital library.

More than a year after hearing arguments in the case, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin ruled on Tuesday that the proposed settlement goes "too far."

Google's revised settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers "would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case," Chin said in his decision. The ruling is "clearly disappointing," Hilary Ware, Google's managing counsel, said in a statement.

"But we'll review the court's decision and consider our options. Like many others, we believe this agreement has the potential to open up access to millions of books that are currently hard to find in the U.S. today. Regardless of the outcome, we'll continue to work to make more of the world's books discoverable online through Google Books and Google eBooks."

The revised settlement was offered in November 2009 after the Justice Department and others raised concerns about the original settlement that Google reached with the publishers and the Authors Guild.

Among the groups that have fought the deal are the Open Book Alliance, which includes Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo, among other Google rivals; the American Society of Journalists and Authors; and the National Writers Union. The alliance argues that the proposed settlement is aimed at monopolizing "the access, distribution, and pricing of the largest digital database of books in the world."