Deadline arrives in Google book-scan deal

NEW YORK: The latest chapter is about to unfold in a four-year-old copyright lawsuit over Google's ambitious book-scanning project.

Google Inc. and the publishers suing the company have until the end of Monday to come up with a new settlement. They have to address the Justice Department's antitrust objections to a previous agreement.

The case involves Google's plans to scan millions of books and make them searchable and available for purchase online. A proposed $125 million settlement would give Google digital rights to those works. But the government told a federal judge in New York that the agreement threatens to give Google the power to increase book prices and discourage competition.