Judge closes book on Google's online library

Google's controversial plans to create the world's biggest online library have been shelved by a US judge.

Judge Danny Chin threw out the $125 million deal that Google struck with authors and publishers in 2008, claiming that the company had gone "too far" in a ruling filed in the U.S. district court in Manhattan.

He suggested the settlement would have a better chance at approval if it was revised to cover only those who opt into the agreement.

As written now, the settlement “would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of copyright owners,” Chin wrote yesterday. It “would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case.”

The web giant has already scanned millions of books, many held at some of the world's greatest libraries including Oxford University's Bodleian and Harvard's libraries, and made them available online via its eBooks platform. The plan has split the publishing industry and attracted fierce criticism from authors and rival tech firms.

While Google said it would show only snippets of works that are in copyright, some authors complained that they had not given their permission for the scanning in the first place and were wary of Google's future plans.

In court Google rejected calls for an "opt-in" solution where copyright owners would decide whether or not to be part of the scanning project. The company said the idea was not viable. But judge Chin suggested he might look more favourably on a settlement that allowed copyright owners to "opt in".

"While the digitisation of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many," Chin wrote, Google's current pact would "simply go too far". It would "give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission," he said.

The agreement rejected by Chin was negotiated with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Under the settlement, Google would continue to digitise books and sell access online and the company would pay $125m (£76.9m) in royalties every year to the copyright owners of the books being scanned.

Sources: Slate and The Guardian.