NEW YORK — A federal judge has set a Nov. 9 deadline for submission of a revised agreement in the battle over Google Inc.’s effort to get digital rights to millions of out-of-print books. Then the debate over the fairness of the plan will resume.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin set the deadline after a lawyer for authors told the judge that Google and lawyers for authors and publishers were working around the clock to reach a new deal by early November.
The $125 million agreement was being renegotiated after it was heavily criticized by many of the more than 400 submissions Chin received prior to a fairness hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday.
The biggest blow came in papers filed last month by the Justice Department, which said the deal “raises significant legal concerns.” The agency wrote that it was likely to conclude the agreement breaks federal antitrust law.
The Justice Department also said that the deal could decrease competition among U.S. publishers and drive up prices for consumers because Google might gain a monopoly on out-of-print books that are protected by copyright but whose writers’ whereabouts are unknown.
The head of the U.S. Copyright Office testified in a House Judiciary Committee last month that parts of the agreement were “fundamentally at odds with the law.”
The original deal was announced by Mountain View, Calif.-based Google and the publishing industry last October to resolve two copyright lawsuits contesting the book scanning plans.
Michael Boni, a lawyer for authors, told the judge Wednesday that the new agreement would contain amendments to the original deal to make it acceptable to the Justice Department.
William F. Cavanaugh, a deputy assistant attorney general, told the judge that the government has been in continuing discussions with the parties.
However, he said the government was not yet aware of what the final deal will look like.
He said he expected “meetings in the near term to go over whatever their proposal is.”
Cavanaugh asked that the judge give the government a week to 10 days after any deadline for objections to be submitted for the Justice Department to prepare its analysis of the new deal.
At one point, Chin asked what will happen if negotiations break down and no deal is reached.
Google lawyer Daralyn Durie reassured the judge, saying: “The parties’ expectation is we will be able to reach agreement.”
Chin did not set deadlines for when objections will be required to be submitted but said he expected he will only allow objections to any new provisions, since core features of the agreement are expected to remain intact.
“Everyone has a pretty good idea what’s on the table,” he said. “Targeting the changes, I think, is the right way to do it.”
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