Deal or No Deal - Will there be a Google Book Settlement?

Publishers Weekly carried an article by Andrew Richard Albanese on "Deal or No Deal: What if the Google Settlement Fails?" It looks like the Google Book Settlement, which was steaming along at a fast pace, now faces the the real possibility of failure. The 5/25/09 article includes a helpful timeline of the Google Book Search project.

• 10/2004 -- Google Print launched
• 12/2004 -- Google Print Library Project (with 5 libraries)
• 6/2005 -- AAP asks Google to stop scanning for 6 months
• 9/20/2005 -- Authors Guild files suit against Google for copyright infringement
• 10/2005 -- Internet Archive and co-founder Brewster Kahle launch Open Content Alliance (OCA).
• 10/19/2005 --Five major publishers, coordinated by AAP, also sue Google
• 11/2005 -- Google Print renamed Google Book Search
• 12/2005 -- Microsoft launches the beta for Microsoft Live Book Search Project
• 8/2006 to 12/2007 -- Google rapidly expands its book-scanning efforts and partnerships with libraries and publishers
• 5/2008 -- Microsoft kills Live Book Search after digitizing 750,000 books
• 10/28 -- AAP, Authors Guild, and Google announce a settlement under which Google will make payments totaling $125 million, including $35 million to establish a Book Rights Registry
• 11/2008 -- The court overseeing the Google Book settlement grants “preliminary approval” to the deal.
• 2/2009 -- Harvard librarian Robert Darnton publishes an essay crystallizing opposition to the Google Book program
• 3/2009 -- Google officials say that its publisher partner program now has more than 20,000 members
• 4/2009 -- Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive/OCA file a motion to intervene, asking that the court overseeing the settlement alter the deal, citing the fate of orphan works. The motion is denied, but the judge invites comments and objections from the IA.
• 9/4 and 10/7/2009 -- Dates set by Judge Denny Chin to opt out of or object to the settlement, and the new date of the fairness hearing