Judge grants more time to ink Google Books pact

A US judge on Tuesday gave Google more time to work out a deal with book authors and publishers to put digitized works into an online library. US District Court Judge Denny Chin set a new hearing date for September 15 in protracted negotiations which, if unsuccessful, will leave it to him to decide how to proceed. "We have been working closely with the authors and publishers to explore a number of options in response to the court's decision," Google said in response to an AFP inquiry. "Regardless of the outcome, we'll continue to make books discoverable and useful through Google Books and Google eBooks," the California Internet firm added. In March, Chin dealt a major setback to Google's plans for a vast digital library and online bookstore, rejecting a settlement hammered out by the Internet giant with authors and publishers. The judge said in a ruling 13 months after the parties had their day in his Manhattan courtroom that the proposed settlement is "not fair, adequate and reasonable." The 2008 settlement resulted from a class action lawsuit filed in 2005 by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) charging Google with copyright infringement over its huge book-scanning project. The settlement called for Google to pay $125 million to resolve outstanding copyright claims and to establish an independent "Book Rights Registry," which would provide sales and advertising revenue to authors and publishers. While rejecting the settlement, the judge left the door open for the parties to go back to the negotiating table. Google opened a Google eBookstore in December, a venture that is separate from Google Books, which was launched in 2004 and has digitized over 15 million books from more than 100 countries.