A US district court has once again delayed the ruling on Internet search engine firm Google’s controversial move to digitise millions of out-of-copy books. This is expected to put on hold Google’s plans to become the world’s largest online library.
Judge Denny Chin told a packed courtroom that he would listen with an ‘open mind’ to arguments for and against Google’s settlement with some authors and publishers over the right to scan and publish titles. He had to postpone the ruling since there was ‘too much to digest’ – this referred to the vast quantity of data to be examined. The court reportedly received over 500 comments ahead of the hearing, the purpose of which is to determine the fairness of a $125 million settlement struck in 2005.
Google has been trying to reach a judgment since the project’s launch in 2004. According to the company and its supporters, the project, if approved, will create an online database for people to access millions of books including orphan works. Critics, including some authors, library groups and competitors such as Amazon and Microsoft, argue that Google’s deal would go against copyright laws and give the company exclusive rights to many titles.
Publishers and authors have been upset with Google posting extracts of their books online without fairly compensating them. The Google Books initiative, launched five years ago, faced severe criticism in 2005 after the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild of America sued the company over copyright infringement. In October 2008, Google reached a settlement with publishers and authors in the US over the copyright infringement suit filed in 2005. It agreed to pay $125 million to solve pending claims and establish an independent unit to provide revenue from advertising and sales to authors and publishers who agree to digitise their books.
Later, in November 2008, a US judge granted a preliminary settlement approval with an opt-out deadline of May 2009. But in April 2009, another US judge amended the preliminary approval order to extend the opt-out deadline to September 2009. The court hearing to determine the terms and conditions of the Google Books agreement was then set for October 2009. Following more criticism from leading publishing and technology firms, the hearing was further delayed to 2010.
On February 19, 2010, the decision was once again postponed indefinitely.
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