The top U.S. copyright official has joined the mounting opposition to a class-action settlement that would give Google Inc. the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books.
Her objections cast further doubt on whether the agreement will be allowed by a federal court, even as Google offered a concession Thursday aimed at smoothing the way for approval.
Parts of the settlement are “fundamentally at odds with the law,” Marybeth Peters, head of the U.S. Copyright Office, testified in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday that was webcast. She also expressed concerns that the settlement would undermine Congress’ ability to govern copyrights and could have “serious international implications” for books published outside the United States.
Peters can’t block Google’s settlement with U.S. authors and publishers. That decision rests with U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who has scheduled an Oct. 7 hearing in New York to review the settlement.
But Peters’ conclusions will likely be drawn upon as critics of the deal try to convince Chin that the settlement shouldn’t be approved, said Peter Brantley, director of access for the Internet Archive. The archive has joined forces with Google rivals Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to lead the charge against the book settlement.
It’s unclear how the copyright office’s opinion might influence the U.S. Department of Justice, which is investigating whether the settlement would hurt competition in the growing market for digital books. The Justice Department is expected to share some of its findings with Chin in documents scheduled to be filed by Sept. 18.
At issue are Google’s plans to scan millions of books, make them searchable online and sell subscriptions to libraries and individual copies to consumers. Google says this will revitalize works that might otherwise be long forgotten. The $125 million settlement emerged last year after trade groups representing publishers and authors sued…