SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc.’s plans to add millions of copyright-protected books to its digital library are riding on a new legal settlement addressing the objections of government regulators who don’t want Google to gain too much power over a new market.
The revisions, which were expected to be filed with a New York federal court late Friday, represent Google’s latest attempt to resolve a 4-year-old lawsuit with groups representing the interests of U.S. authors and publishers.
Google negotiated a $125 million truce nearly 13 months ago, only to have it fall apart as a chorus of critics protested to the federal judge who must approve the proposed settlement.
Among other complaints, the opposition said the plan would put Google in charge of a literary cartel that could illegally rig the prices of electronic books — a format that is expected to become increasingly popular.
The Justice Department chimed in with concerns two months ago, saying the settlement could diminish competition, drive up prices and trample over copyright laws. French and German officials have protested the settlement, arguing that it’s so broad that it could infringe on copyrights in their countries.
Google plans to sell subscriptions to its digital library, as well as individual copies of books, with most of the proceeds going to the participating authors and publishers.
The Internet search leader already has gone into some of the nation’s largest libraries to scan about 6 million out-of-print books. So far, though, it has only been able to show snippets of those digital copies. A court-approved settlement would clear the way for Google to sell all those out-of-print books and scan even more into its index.
