Court Date Set For Google Book Case

The Google Book settlement received an initial signal of approval by a US court yesterday, according to a book settlement website. A final settlement/fairness hearing should be held on 18 February 2010 before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to a document posted on the Google Book settlement website.

Objections to the amended settlement should be received by 28 January 2010. Some objections to the project should be expected, according to a source. The same deadline applies for opt-in and opt-out options, according to the document.

The amended settlement agreement was filed on 13 November by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google in Authors Guild v. Google (IPW, IP-Burble, 18 November 2009).

The original lawsuit dates back to 2005 after Google announced its agreement with several libraries to digitise books and other writings and had allegedly digitised books still under copyright in the United States, the Authors Guild said.

The court also approved the Supplemental Notice also submitted on 13 November and it should be distributed in mid-December, according to the settlement website.