The US Justice Department advised a court to reject a legal settlement between Google and authors and publishers that would allow the Internet giant to scan and sell millions of books online.

The Justice Department, in a filing with a US District Court in New York, said the class action settlement raises copyright and anti-trust issues but it encouraged the parties to continue their discussions to address its concerns.

“As presently drafted, the Proposed Settlement does not meet the legal standards this Court must apply,” the department said in a filing late Friday with the court.

“The public interest would best be served by direction from the Court encouraging the continuation of those discussions,” it said.

The US District Court in New York is to hold a hearing on the settlement on October 7.

Google reached a class action settlement in October with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers to a copyright infringement suit they filed against the Mountain View, California, company in 2005.

Under the settlement, Google agreed to pay 125 million dollars to resolve outstanding claims and establish an independent “Book Rights Registry,” which will provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.

Google rivals Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo! have filed objections to the settlement with the court along with the French and German governments, privacy advocates and consumer watchdog groups.

Sony Electronics of Japan, maker of the electronic book reader the Sony Reader, and a group of 32 US professors of law and economics, have filed briefs supporting the deal.

Source: AFP