Justice Dept. to Probe Google Book Settlement with Authors

Mountain View, Calif. -- The U.S. Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe into the settlement being negotiated between Mountain View-based Google and authors over the company's book-scanning service, The New York Times reported. Citing two people briefed on the matter, the paper reported that Justice Department lawyers have been in conversations in recent weeks with groups that oppose the deal, such as the Internet Archive and Consumer Watchdog. The probe comes as the federal court overseeing the Google Book Search copyright settlement extended by four months the deadline by which authors must decide whether to accept the terms or opt-out. Several groups had petitioned the court for additional time to review the settlement terms, which came out of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Google by the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers. Authors who accept the settlement terms will give Google permission to scan their works digitally to appear in its search index, and share in any revenue generated with Google. Opponents say the settlement will give Google too much control over a nascent marketplace, particularly for "orphan" copyrighted works, where ownership is not clear.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/technology/internet/29google.html 
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporateering/articles/?storyId=26117 
http://www.googlebooksettlement.com