New Google book settlement still raises antitrust concerns: US

I / Washington February 5, 2010, 13:14 IST

The bid by the world's largest search engine Google to get digital rights to millions of hard-to-find books has run into legal hurdles with the US Justice department saying it threatens to undermine copyright laws.

The Department has opposed a revised legal settlement reached between Google and the American authors and publishers that would allow it to scan and sell millions of books online.

In an opinion filed in a New York Federal Court yesterday, the Justice department said the amended settlement raises anti-trust concerns.

"The amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement, it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation," the Department of Justice said in its statement in the court.

The government action is a major set-back to Google's efforts to win approval of a 15-month old legal settlement that would make it a store house for millions of books.

The Justice Department's advise to the court comes even as consumer watchdogs, literary agents, foreign governments and state governments in US have already filed objections before a US district judge to reject the agreement.

Judge Denny Chin is to hold a hearing on February 18 to consider approving the class action settlement.