Google's drive to create the online library and bookstore of the future is being delayed indefinitely after the judge overseeing a controversial settlement with the world's authors and publishers over copyright issues postponed an upcoming hearing, citing opposition from the U.S. and foreign governments.

Federal district court judge Denny Chin canceled the so-called fairness hearing on October 7, since Google is currently re-negotiating the agreement with the plaintiffs. Those negotiations over Google Book Search re-opened after the Justice Department weighed in with a critical filing last Friday that effectively killed the version that had been under intense public discussion for nearly a year.

"The current settlement agreement raises significant issues, as demonstrated not only by the number of objections, but also by the fact that the objectors include countries, states, nonprofit organizations and prominent authors and law professors. Clearly, fair concerns have been raised," Chin wtote in a Thursday ruling (.pdf).

But, critically, Chin found, like the Justice Department before him, the settlement negotiations should not be scuttled yet.

"On the other hand, the proposed settlement would offer many benefits to society," Chin wrote. "It would appear that if a fair and reasonable settelment can be struck, the public would benefit."

The ruling was not unexpected, given that the plaintiffs in the case – The Author's Guild and the American Association of Publishers – asked for a postponement, without objection from the search giant. Those groups sued Google in 2005, arguing that its project to make digital copies of millions of books in the nation's top universities' libraries and make them searchable violated copyright law.

The two sides came to a landmark agreement that cut through thorny copyright provisions for out-of-print works whose authors couldn't be found and proposed to set up an independent Book Registry that would set and collect royalty rates, much like those that exist for musicians and songwriters.

But an odd-fellows union of opposition grew in strength over the months that authors and publishers had to decide whether to fight or sign onto November's settlement. Union members included Microsoft, the the hard left-leaning National Writers Union, the Internet Archive (archive.org), the French government and copyright scholars such as UC Berkeley's Pamela Samuelson.

Google attempted to rally support for its project, which has now digitized more than seven million books. Sony, which makes a e-book reader to compete with Amazon's Kindle, supported the project for making millions of books available

Google has already offered concessions, including an offer to let other online retailers – such as e-retail giant Amazon.com – resell the books Google digitized. Amazon quickly shot down the idea of becoming a Google affiliate.

A Google spokesperson noted that the judge expressed hope that a good settlement be reached quickly, and said Google was working to iron out a new agreement.

"We are engaged in focused discussions with Department of Justice regarding specific points it has raised, and are considering potential amendments to the agreement," the spokesperson said.

Photo: Flickr/David Masters

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