Judge: Amended Pact To Be Submitted In Google Book Case Nov 9

A group of authors and publishers and Google Inc. (GOOG) will submit an amended version of their settlement over digital copies of copyrighted books on the Internet in November, a judge said Wednesday.

At a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan set Nov. 9 as the date for the parties to submit an amended settlement that addresses concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice and others about the deal.

Michael Boni, a lawyer for the authors, said the parties hope to seek final approval of the amended pact in December or early January.

"We have been working around the clock," Boni said.

Boni also said they would hope to have a shorter period for objectors to raise concerns about the changes in order to move the settlement forward.

Under the original settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers reached last year, Google would have paid $125 million to establish a registry to allow authors and publishers to register their works and get paid when their titles are viewed online.

Boni said the parties have already agreed to extend the deadline for authors to make claims regarding books that are already scanned from Jan. 5, 2010, to June 5, 2010.

The settlement would have resolved lawsuits by the authors' and publishers' groups over the Google Book Search program. Google has scanned millions of books for the program.

Daralyn Durie, a lawyer for Google, said the parties expect to present an amended settlement to the court by early November.

However, a number of authors, privacy advocates, governments and others, including Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) DC Comics, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and the French and German governments, filed objections to the settlement.

They have argued in part that the pact would have given Google broad rights and immunities that will give it an unfair advantage over other digital libraries and violates copyright laws outside the U.S.

A fairness hearing on the settlement, originally set for Wednesday, was delayed to allow the parties time to amend the deal in order to win approval from the Justice Department.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General William F. Cavanaugh said the Justice Department hasn't yet seen any proposed changes in the agreement at this point.

-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; [e-mail]