U.S. launches formal investigation into Google's digital books settlement

Some authors and Google critics have complained that the deal would hurt competition by giving the company a stranglehold over the burgeoning market for online books. The U.S.

Google and US authors and publishers submitted a revised settlement to a US judge Friday seeking approval of an agreement that would clear the way for millions of books to be sold online.The modified settlement, which runs nearly 370 pages, seeks to address copyright and anti-trust objections raised by the Department of Justice and others to the original version of the complicated legal agreement.

The US Department of Justice on Thursday came out against a revised legal settlement with US authors and publishers that would allow Google to scan and sell millions of books online.Federal lawyers told the US District Court in New York that despite "substantial progress" between Google, The Authors Guild and other involved parties "class certification, copyright and antitrust issues remain."

Google, authors and publishers are hashing out possible changes to a digital-books settlement after the Justice Department's objections.

Google, authors and publishers are hashing out possible changes to a digital-books settlement after the Justice Department's objections.

The US Department of Justice came out against a revised legal settlement with US authors and publishers that would allow Google to scan and sell millions of books online.Federal lawyers told the US District Court in New York that despite "substantial progress" between Google, The Authors Guild and other involved parties "class certification, copyright and antitrust issues remain."Despite good faith efforts by all sides, the amended agreement "suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement," the DOJ said in a "statement of interest" filed with the court.

Critics of the revised legal settlement with US authors and publishers that would allow Google to scan and sell millions of books online filed a flurry of last-minute objections on Thursday.Judge Denny Chin is to hold a hearing on February 18 on Google's vast digital book project and the deadline for filing briefs in the case was Thursday.Among those submitting objections were online retail giant Amazon, Consumer Watchdog, half-a-dozen French publishing houses, fantasy fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin, the Open Book Alliance and others.