New York City Judge Rejects Google Books Deal

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — Saying Google Inc. had overstretched, a federal judge on Tuesday rejected a deal between the giant search engine and lawyers for authors and publishers that would have let the company make money presiding over the world's largest digital library.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan said the creation of a universal library would benefit many but would "simply go too far." He rejected a $125 million settlement that was opposed by Google rivals, consumer watchdogs, academic experts, literary agents and even foreign governments.

Google has already scanned more than 15 million books for the project.

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."

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