Not settled yet
Google books is an online database of scanned books, available to the public, that allows you to preview a book and potentially read the whole thing online or even download a PDF copy.
Last October the Authors Guild and a group of publishers settled a copyright infringement action they had taken against Google to the tune of $125 million and a promise to protect the commercial interests of those works still under copyright.
Yesterday, however, the US Department of Justice wrote a letter to the judge overseeing the settlement, announcing it was opening an antitrust investigation into the settlement.
"At this preliminary stage, the United States has reached no conclusions as to the merit of those concerns or more broadly what impact this settlement may have on competition," said deputy assistant attorney general William F Cavanaugh in his letter. "However, we have determined that the issues raised by the proposed settlement warrant further enquiry."
You can see Google's official page regarding the settlement here. Apart from the issues surrounding one company controlling online access to the world's books, outstanding concerns centre around ‘orphan' titles - those for whom the copyright holder can't be found - and whether Google should be allowed to hold a monopoly over such books.
Google's main defence, apart from the settlement, seems to be that there's nothing stopping another company scanning a ton of books and making them available online.
