NEW YORK — A judge rejected a deal between Google and the book industry Tuesday that would have put millions of volumes online, citing antitrust concerns while acknowledging the potential benefit of putting literature in front of the masses.
U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan said the creation of a universal library would “simply go too far.” Still, he left the door open for an eventual deal, noting that many objectors would drop their complaints if Google set it up so that book owners could choose to join the library rather than being required to quit it.
The $125 million settlement had drawn hundreds of objections from Google rivals, consumer watchdogs, academic experts, literary agents and even foreign governments. Google has already scanned more than 15 million books for the project.
Hilary Ware, Google’s managing counsel, called the decision disappointing and said the company was considering its options.
Chin said the settlement that the company reached with U.S. authors and publishers would “grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners.” He was particularly critical of the access Google would have to “orphan works” — out- of-print books whose writers could not be located — saying the deal gave the company “a de facto monopoly over unclaimed works.”
