Judge sets deadline for agreement on Google Book

A federal judge on Wednesday set a month's deadline for the parties in the battle over Google Inc. 'efforts to obtain the digital reproduction rights of millions of books out of circulation in the United States submitted a revised agreement.
Judge Denny Chin set a deadline for the Nov. 9, after a lawyer representing the owners tell him that Google's lawyers authors and publishers who were working hard to reach a new agreement in early November. An agreement of $ 125 million was being renegotiated after the U.S. government say that it seemed that the existing agreement would violate antitrust laws.
The original agreement was announced last October by Google and the publishing industry to settle two lawsuits that challenged publishing rights plans for digital broadcasting.
Michael Boni, a lawyer for authors, told the judge that the new agreement would contain amendments to make it more acceptable to the Department of Justice, which questioned the legality of the original version.
William F. Cavanaugh, a deputy assistant secretary of Justice, told the judge that the department has been in continuous testing with both sides. However, said the government was not aware yet of how the final agreement.
He said he expected "meetings in the near future to discuss the proposal."
Cavanaugh asked the judge to give the government 10 days after any deadline for filing objections, so that the Justice Department prepare its analysis of a new agreement.
At one point, Chin wondered what would happen if the talks fail and no agreement is reached.

Google's lawyer Daralyn Durie told the judge: "The expectation is we will get both sides to reach an agreement."
Chin did not set a deadline for when they should be submitted objections but said he expected objections to authorize only new provisions, it is hoped that the basic points of agreement remained intact.
The judge received almost 400 views on the new agreement, many of them expressing disapproval.