Judge's Delay and Antitrust Inquiry Raise Questions About Google Book Search Settlement
-- Library Journal, 4/30/2009
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- Four-month delay
- Inquiries about antitrust issues
- Increasing chance deal would be modified, even rejected
(For a set of links, go to LibraryJournal.com/GoogleBookSearchSettlement.)
For the first time since its preliminary approval in November of last year, the Google Book Search settlement is looking less like a done deal. On April 28, New York Judge Denny Chin granted a four-month extension, as reported in Publishers Weekly, delaying the initial May 5 deadline to opt out or object to the Google settlement to September 4.
“The extension is a big victory for those who oppose the Google Books settlement,” John M. Simpson, an advocate for Consumer Watchdog, told PW. “It’s a clear recognition by the judge that there are problems with the proposed deal."
Further, the delay will give the U.S. Department of Justice more time to consider the antitrust issues that critics of the deal have raised. DoJ officials have made no comment but parties to the settlement have told multiple press outlets that they've been contacted.
Chance for changes
James Grimmelman, a New York Law School professor who has written extensively on the settlement, agreed that the extension may not be good news for the deal. “Since the more you look at the settlement, the more worrying things you see, I’d agree that a delay increases the chances that it would be rejected or modified,” Grimmelman told PW.
The settlement, unveiled in October, seeks to resolve a class-action lawsuit that stems from cases filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers in 2005 to stop Google from scanning books and making them searchable online.
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