• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, August 10, 2009

Advocates for the disabled have asked a federal court to approve a controversial settlement of a lawsuit filed by book authors and publishers against Google.

"The settlement's benefits for readers with disabilities are extraordinary," the American Association of People with Disabilities said in a letter filed last week with the court.

"People for whom transportation to a library or bookstore is difficult, unavailable or expensive would have access to these books through their computer," the organization wrote in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan. "People with vision loss will be able to search for books through the Google Books interface and purchase, borrow, or read at a public library any of the books that are available to the general public in accessible formats."

The pact calls for Google to fund a new book rights registry and allows it to digitize books and sell downloads at prices it sets with the registry. If it goes through, the deal would settle a 4-year-old copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Google by authors and publishers.

Google has said that the deal will be a boon to readers because it will allow people to access books that have long been out of print. The company also specifically touts the deal's potential benefits for vision-impaired readers, stating that Google's interface would allow people to easily find books in formats that are accessible to the vision-impaired.

But some terms of the proposed settlement have sparked objections. One concern, raised by the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, is that the agreement could give Google an unfair advantage over other potential publishers when it comes to "orphan works" -- material under copyright, but whose owners can't be found.

The orphan works provision of the settlement would protect Google from liability for digitizing and selling orphan works. But the New York Law School institute says that term could result in an unequal playing field in the digital book space because other potential publishers would still face copyright infringement liability for offering orphan works.

Civil liberties advocates and library associations also have asked Google for assurances that it will protect readers' privacy. In addition, the Department of Justice said last month that it has opened an antitrust investigation into the settlement.

Chin will hold a hearing about the proposed deal on Oct. 7.