Google, Publishers Settle Dispute over Book Scanning

Lawsuit by authors still remains, though

Google and U.S. publishers have settled a longstanding dispute over Google's book-scanning project. A lawsuit filed by authors remains, though, leaving the project in question.

The Association of American Publishers and Google Inc. announced their settlement on Thursday to end a lawsuit filed by five publishers in October 2005.

Google already has scanned more than 20 million books. Publishers and authors sued, saying the project violated their copyrights. Authors' and publishers' groups had settled with Google before, but a federal judge tossed the deal following objections. One point of contention was the fact that books were included unless Google was informed that an author or publisher objected.