Snags Hit Google Settlement With Authors and Publishers, and Antitrust Worries Rise

There are signs that the Google Book Settlement may be unraveling. Jennifer Howard at the Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog reports a delay at least to October, and some interest from the Justice Department’s antitrust division. Meanwhile, the library community, which will be key intermediaries in the proposed arrangements, raise significant concerns about privacy, access, and costs under the terms of the settlement in a new filing with the court. This bears close interest from the many independent historians and faculty at small colleges who are beginning to rely on the resources available through Google Books. Also see this article by Dan Clancy, engineering director for Google Book Search, where he surveys the issues from the Google perspective in the latest Library Journal.