Delay sought in Google trial
2009-09-23 17:04
Washington - US authors and publishers asked a judge on Tuesday to delay the hearing scheduled for next month on their legal settlement with Google over its ambitious book-scanning project.
In a filing with the US District Court in New York, attorneys for the US Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers asked for the October 7 hearing to be delayed so objections to the settlement could be addressed.
They said Google had agreed with the request for the hearing to be held at a later date.
The move came four days after the US Justice Department advised Judge Denny Chin to reject the settlement between Google and authors and publishers that would allow the Internet giant to scan and sell millions of books online.
The Justice Department said the class action settlement raises copyright and anti-trust issues but it encouraged the parties to continue their discussions.
Google and the authors and publishers reached the settlement last year to a copyright infringement suit they filed against the Mountain View, California company in 2005.
Under the settlement, Google agreed to pay $125m to resolve outstanding claims and establish an independent "Book Rights Registry", which would provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitise their books.
Google rivals Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo! have filed objections to the settlement with the court along with the French and German governments, privacy advocates and consumer watchdog groups.