US judge postpones hearing on Google book deal

Washington, Sep 25: A judge on Thursday, Sep 24, postponed the hearing on a $125 million deal that would allow Google Inc to create a massive digital library.

US District judge Denny Chin postponed the fairness hearing over a controversial settlement between Google and US authors & publishers on copyright and anti-trust grounds.

"Under all the circumstances, it makes no sense to conduct a hearing on the fairness and reasonableness of the current settlement agreement, as it does not appear the the current settlement will be the operative one," wrote Judge Chin.

Instead of the hearing on Oct 7, the judge scheduled a "status conference" on that date to determine how to proceed with the case.

Google issued a statement citing the Judge's statement that the settlement would benefit society.

"If approved by the court, this settlement stands to unlock access to millions of books in the US, while giving authors and publishers new ways to distribute their work," said the statement.

OneIndia News