September 04, 2009

The battle over Google's effort to digitise the world's books and create a vast online library has intensified. Authors have until Friday to opt out of the $125 million settlement the search giant made with authors and publishers.

The date for comments to the New York court overseeing the class action suit was extended from Friday to Tuesday, after the filing system went down. As time ticks away, supporters and critics have been manning both sides of the debate to win the public case.

The settlement reached last October stemmed from a 2005 legal suit that Google faced for scanning out-of-print works without explicit permission from rights holders. If approved by a judge, Google would create a Book Rights Registry where authors and publishers could register works and be compensated.

Ahead of Friday's opt-out for authors, Google lined up a number of professors, students and civil rights activists who support the deal. "We see access to knowledge as a civil right," Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil rights told reporters in a conference call.

"Information enables individuals to learn, to create and to pursue their dreams. Access to knowledge defines the meaning of equal opportunity in a democratic society," said Mr Henderson.

Source:-http://news.bbc.co.uk