Ars Technica has a look at the current filings and legal strategies in the Google Books case. There are three current cases against Google—two 2005 cases involving publishers and authors, which are the ones involved in the settlement that failed after four years of work, and one in 2010 from photographers and illustrators. Google appears close to a separate settlement in the publishers’ case. But Google is likely to carry on its battle with the authors, photographers, and other individual copyright holders. Some authors consider the fight a matter of principle. And even if Google convinced...

Amazon has settled a 2009 patent lawsuit from Discovery, the company behind the Discovery Channel, the Military Channel, and others, PaidContent reports. (We mentioned the lawsuit here and here.) The patent, filed for in 1999 and granted in 2007, had to do with e-book copy protection and secure distribution. Although Discovery does not itself have anything to do with e-books, its founder, John Hendricks, is an amateur inventor who dabbled in e-book digitization and distribution. The details of the settlement will remain private and confidential (as they usually do), but it seems clear Amazon’s Kindle sales have reached the...

Just a few days after Spring Design mentioned that it was discontinuing the current generation of Alex dual-screened e-book reader, TechCrunch reports that Spring Design has settled its lawsuit with Barnes & Noble over the Nook’s design similarities to the Alex. And it sounds like B&N pretty much got its way. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Spring Design will grant B&N a “non-exclusive, paid-up royalty free license” for the entire portfolio of the company’s patents and patent applications. Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The suit was dismissed with prejudice,...

After announcing its cooperative arrangement with Hachette Livre for Google Books operations in France, Google has now said that it is in “notional” talks with UK publishers to come to a similar arrangement, The Bookseller reports. The company also announced Hachette had signed up with its forthcoming e-book program, Google Editions, and hoped to launch it “shortly.” Industry observers are pleased with the deal, which seems to have produced a similar result to the Google Books settlement without expensive, time-consuming litigation. However, the French Publishers Association is still skeptical, warning that Google "has never respected its commitments as regards...

Google has come to a settlement with French publisher Hachette Livre in regard to the scanning and use of scanned French books for its Google Books project. The deal apparently gives Hachette considerable control over what titles are scanned and used. Hachette will also get to use Google’s scans of its books for print-on-demand and e-book sales. The Bookseller’s FutureBooks reports on the settlement and posts the press release. The Bookseller itself has more backstory, noting that Hachette had filed an objection to the Google Books settlement with the US court in September. Google says that it does not...

David Sarno reports in the LA Times Tech Blog that the Department of Justice has filed a brief objecting to the revised Google Books settlement and suggesting that settlement talks should continue. Google originally asked for more time to create this second revision in the first place to address some of the concerns Justice had with the original version. Sarno writes: The Justice Department cited issues with copyright and judicial process in its reservations about the settlement. Though it complimented the parties on the progress of the latest draft of the settlement, the brief...

According to a recent press release, Stanford has officially signed onto the Google Book Search settlement and become a Fully Participating Library. (This is also mentioned on the Google Public Policy Blog.) University Librarian Michael A. Keller said, "We are highly supportive of the amended settlement, which offers an enormous public good, making the full text of millions of books available to the American public." Provost John Etchemendy signed the agreement for Stanford University. "This agreement is consistent with Stanford’s mission of sharing and disseminating knowledge, and allows us to...

The deadline for comments on the revised Google Books settlement passed yesterday, and all indications are that there are still nearly as many people upset with the second version as there were with the first. Ars Technica has an article covering some of these objections in detail, and links to The Public Index’s list of individual filings. The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog had another piece from before the deadline looking at Amazon’s and academic authors’ objections, and the Times Online had a look at British authors’ reactions. The revision does not seem to have changed many...