U.S. looks into Google books deal

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is making inquiries about a class action deal that Google struck giving it the right to digitise and sell entire libraries, two experts on digitisation told Reuters on Tuesday.

Under a proposed settlement last October between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, Google agreed to pay $125 million (85.3 million pounds) to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers can register works and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions or book sales.

Google's plan is to let readers to search through millions of copyrighted books online, browse passages and purchase copies.

But the deal also would allow Google -- and only Google -- to digitise so-called orphan works, which has raised some eyebrows in antitrust circles. Orphan works are books or other materials that are still covered by U.S. copyright law, but it is not clear who owns the rights to them.

"Essentially, it gives Google a free pass for infringement for selling all these books," said James Grimmelmann, who teaches at the New York Law School. "Publishers (who are part of the settlement) would be happy to share the monopoly with Google."

Grimmelmann said he was part of a recent conference call with Justice Department lawyers, who asked questions about Google's proposed settlement.

Grimmelmann said the Justice Department lawyers did not indicate what their concerns were.

"I have no idea what they're thinking," he said.