A US judge has given Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, two more months to come up with a proposal to create digital library Google Books in such a way that it does not violate copyright law.
In a recent hearing, Judge Denny Chin of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit set a new hearing date for September 15. By this date, Google must reportedly present a 'fair' way to reward book publishers and authors for re-printing snippets of their content online. Google and publishers have been working on such a deal since 2005.
According to media reports, Chin said at the hearing that if the matter is not resolved by September 15 he will take a decision on it by himself. Chin first heard the case in 2009 when he was a district judge for New York. He kept the case after he was promoted to the federal appeals court in 2010.
According to a Google spokesperson, the company has been working closely with authors and publishers to explore a number of options in response to the court's decision. It has reportedly asked for more time to discuss these options. Regardless of the outcome, Google will continue to make books discoverable and useful through Google Books and Google eBooks, the spokesperson said.
In 2005, the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild sued Google for re-printing and cataloguing book snippets without their authors' permission. Google said in October 2008 that it would pay $125 million to settle the lawsuit. However, numerous parties including Microsoft, Amazon and the Department of Justice condemned the agreement and said it continued to violate copyright law.
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Earlier this year, Judge Chin upended the $125 million settlement and forced Google and publishers to re-negotiate a more fair way of creating Google Books. In his judgment, he said the settlement would have given Google a 'de facto monopoly.'
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