Google, Authors try to answer book deal concerns

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google and the Authors Guild filed a new version of a deal to create a massive online library on Friday in hopes of answering antitrust and copyright concerns in the United States and overseas.

Google's plan to put millions of books online has been praised for expanding access to books but has also been criticized on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds.

According to a 30-page court filing made by the parties late on Friday, a section was eliminated that required the book registry created by the settlement to give Google at least as good a deal as any competitor.

In another shift, money from unclaimed or orphan works will go to an independent fiduciary rather than go to the registry.

The Justice Department, in September, had pointed to that arrangement as a conflict of interest since it was the registry that was also tasked with locating writers and paying them for their online sales.

Under the new deal, unclaimed funds will eventually go to charities.

The class action agreement must be approved by a court, and the Justice Department had recommended that the previous version be rejected because of concerns that it might break antitrust law. It also had concerns about violations of copyright law.

"We've had numerous discussions and quite a lot of dialogue with the Justice Department and feel we've addressed their key concerns," said Richard Sarnoff, president of Bertelsmann Digital Media.