Late Friday night, Google filed a revised version of its book settlement with the New York court that is overseeing the case. The new version limits the settlement to works published in a handful of English-speaking countries, and contains significant concessions that appear to be direct responses to some of the criticisms of the deal. Nevertheless, some of its harshest critics have clearly not been placated, as the revised deal has already come under fire due to continuing legal, privacy, and business issues.

Perhaps the most significant change made to the deal is the limit to its scope. The EU as a whole (and several of its member countries) objected to several aspects of the settlement, which could have seen Google offer scans of European works that have never been licensed for sale in the US. Google offered to add European publishers and authors to the board that oversaw the handling of book content, but that was apparently not enough to satisfy the European publishing business; as a result, most of the EU has been dropped.

The exception is the UK, which is being included along with Canada and Australia (but not Ireland or New Zealand), as these nations are considered to have a publishing business and copyright laws substantially similar to the US'. Each of those nations will get a minimum of two representatives on the Book Registry: one publisher, one author (the same deal European rightsholders were offered).

Authors also get a number of concessions, such as the right to reject arbitration for disputes, and the ability to attend any arbitration settings via videoconference (to save on travel expenses). They'll also be represented by an independent fiduciary that will be appointed for the purpose of representing authors who haven't claimed their works. Revenue for unclaimed works will be held for 10 years, and the fiduciary will be able to spend part of that revenue on a search for the rightsholders of these works.

A number of the other changes seem intended to address some of the pointed criticisms the initial settlement had received. Authors will gain the right to allow their works to be distributed under the license of their choice, including Creative Commons licenses. Those concerned about the vague future uses given to Google for scanned works can be reassured that only three will be allowed: print-on-demand, download, and subscription services. Librarians were also considered, as the board will be able to allocate additional public terminals in libraries as it deems appropriate.

A clause that required the Book Registry to grant Google any deals given to other businesses (termed "most favored nation") was also dropped.

Not everything seems to be Google providing concessions in response to criticism, though. Google gets the rights to provide works at a discount, provided that the rightsholders get paid as if the discount weren't in effect. Its love of algorithms also shines through: "The Amended Settlement clarifies that the Pricing Algorithm used to establish the Settlement Controlled Prices for Consumer Purchase will be developed to simulate the prices in a competitive market and that the price for a Book will be established without regard to changes to the price of any other Book."

Continuing criticism

Although the deal has seen substantial revisions, a variety of interested parties clearly feel that the changes are more cosmetic than substantial. A variety of news sources are suggesting that the US Department of Justice's most significant issues with the settlement have been ignored: the settlement provides Google with access to copyrighted works unless their owners opt out, which is a significant change to copyright policy. Google would also be given immunity from future copyright suits.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU also consider the changes to privacy policies in the revised settlement to be inadequate, as the only additional language suggested that, "Google will not share any private information with the Registry without valid legal process."

The Open Book Alliance, a consortium that includes both authors groups and some of Google's fiercest competitors, compared the revisions to a "surgical nip and tuck." Many of the concerns were listed by others, such as the need for Congress to address orphaned works rather than a private legal settlement, and the fact that the settlement is opt-out.

But some of the complaints simply seem to be the result of uneasiness about the fact that some of these competitors have given up on book scanning, leaving Google with an essentially open field.

In any case, it's clear that the revisions to the settlement have not satisfied everyone with interest in the matter. Despite the fact that some of the loudest complaints are coming from Google's competitors, it's clear that a few of the issues highlighted by the deal's critics have merit, and focus on the significant legal implications of the revised deal.

Further reading:

The amended settlement can be downloaded from the Book Settlement website. An FAQ is also available, but it's pretty insubstantial.