The first Monday of October is always an auspicious day. It’s the beginning of the new Supreme Court season. Monday October 6th will be particularly important as a new Justice is joining the Court. Justice Sotomayor will be the third female justice and the first Hispanic justice. Congratulations Justice Sotomayor and best luck.

Most of us are awaiting the October 7th meeting in U.S. District Judge Denny Chin’s court room. The parties will meet to discuss how to proceed, however the Court will not hold a hearing following the Department of Justice’s September 18, 2009 Statement of Interest arguing that the terms of the Settlement do not meet important legal standards. DOJ went on to urge the court and the parties to continue discussions in an effort to secure the considerable social benefits that court result from a successful settlement. It appears that the DOJ statement has caused the parties to reexamine the agreement.

The Department of Justice was just one of 400 organizations/individuals who submitted filings to the Court in relation to the Google Books Settlement. To understand who the filers are, Brandon Butler, Law Policy Fellow for the Association of Research Libraries analyzed who the filers were and why they filed. The results are available in The Google Books Settlement: Who is Filing and What Are They Saying?

Butler notes that the filers fall into three categories–Supporter of the Settlement, Opponent of the Settlement, and Filer with Reservation. Within each category the party indicates a reason for their support or opposition and it can be–Pro- or Anti-user; Pro- or Anti-rightsholder; Pro- or Anti-competitive. Butler notes that in light of the potential modification of the agreement, positions may change and refiling is likely to take places.

In the meantime, it is very interesting reading to see who is in favor of the Settlement and who is not and for what reasons. There are some real surprises in the lists.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.