Google Book Search Settlement Delayed

Publishers Weekly is reporting that a judge has granted a four-month extension on the deadline for affected parties to object to or opt out of the proposed Google Book Search settlement. (You can read Judge Denny Chin’s ruling on Scribd.)

Last week, a group of authors asked the presiding judge for four additional months to review the settlement details. The authors didn’t express objections to the settlement; they only argued that it deserves a longer review period. The $125 million settlement previously included a May 5 deadline for authors to opt out of the settlement and other parties to file objections. The judge has already given his tentative approval and a final verdict was expected on June 11. But that schedule is history now.

Gail Knight Steinbeck, one of the authors who had asked for the four-month extension (and the daughter-in-law of John Steinbeck), told Publishers Weekly, “We now have to time to really sink our teeth into what this agreement will mean.”

Google objected to the four-month extension, and announced yesterday that it had instead asked for a 60-day extension on the opt-out deadline.