Last words? Google Books to get final hearing

From CNET News.com: A federal judge will start writing the ending to the Google Books saga on Thursday, finally paving the way for a resolution of the five-year dispute.

Representatives from Google, groups representing authors and publishers, privacy advocates, and competitors will appear before Judge Denny Chin on Thursday in New York to argue--for possibly the last time--over whether Chin should approve Google's class action settlement with the authors and publishers over Google Book Search. If approved, the settlement would allow Google to display books with varying degrees of access, sell books directly from its site, and launch an institution subscription to its library of over 12 million books.

It has been a long, controversial road to this point, starting when Google was sued in 2005. Observers initially hoped the dispute would clarify fair-use laws regarding books in the Digital Age, which is becoming more and more important as e-readers and tablet devices come to the fore. However, in settling the lawsuit without settling that question, the parties created a digital-book landscape in which Google is the only organization in the U.S. explicitly authorized to make digital copies of out-of-print yet copyright-protected books, much to the dismay of many authors and privacy advocates.

Potential competitors, however, object to the unique rights that Google has been granted based on the class action status of the lawsuit. Some authors are irate over Google's decision to scan their works without asking permission. Privacy advocates fear corporate oversight of what books people are reading. And the U.S. Department of Justice has twice expressed "antitrust" concerns over the proposed settlement.

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