Google Books Settlement "Not Fair, Adequate, and Reasonable"

This article first appeared in Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit legal blog.

A federal court has rejected the settlement agreement in the six year old Google Books litigation. Judge Denny Chin wrote that "[w]hile the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, the [settlement] would simply go too far." Judge Chin's main concern: that Google — which has already scanned more than 12 million books — would be able to exploit entire books still under copyright protection without receiving permission from copyright owners. The decision relies heavily on the fact that objections to the settlement "were great in number."

Judge Chin had preliminarily approved the proposed settlement in 2009. But after receiving notice of the proposed settlement, "hundreds of class members objected;" more than 6,800 class members opted out; the U.S. Department of Justice expressed antitrust concerns; and friends of the court submitted