Judge sets the schedule for Google book case

A US FEDERAL JUDGE has set the schedule for a lawsuit against search giant Google after it failed to reach agreement with the publishing industry regarding its plan to build the largest ebook library in the world.

Judge Denny Chin of the US Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York had given the parties until 15 September to reach an arrangement about Google Ebooks. That deadline has passed without a deal, forcing Chin to make good on his threat that he would push the case forward if there was no agreement.

Chin has shown frustration over the case in recent months, saying that he was "a little bit concerned" that no resolution had been found in six years of dispute. As the 15 September deadline passed, Chin was apparently even more exasperated, according to the New York Times. He said, "This means we will be litigating this case for another year, at least."

Despite the lack of agreement, both parties assured the judge that progress had been made and that they hope to resolve the dispute before the case goes to trial, which should be next year according to Chin's schedule. Both Google and the Association of American Publishers appear to be closer to agreement than author groups, which said that they would like to continue dialogue over outstanding issues.

The lawsuit began in 2005, with Google reaching a $125m settlement with author and publisher groups in 2009, but Chin rejected that over concerns about copyright infringement of 'orphan' books, which are those belonging to authors whose whereabouts are unknown.

Chin was probably right to do this, considering a recent lawsuit against several universities accused of infringing the copyrights of many of these orphan books. Google scanned most of these books for the universities, which could make its negotiations with the publishing industry and authors' groups a little more complicated. µ