Late Friday evening, Google, the Author’s Guild, and the Association of American Publishers filed a revision of the Google Book Search settlement after months of negotiation. The Amended Settlement Agreement is intended to satisfy concerns brought up by opponents of the original agreement, such as the Open Book Alliance (formed by Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo), and by the U.S. Department of Justice.

One major adjustment is that the scope of the Google Book Search project would be narrowed to include only works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office or works published in the U.K., Australia, or Canada. The latter three were included because of the similarities between copyright law in those countries and in the U.S.

Other big changes in the Amended Settlement Agreement address how Google Book Search will deal with unclaimed works:

• The Books Rights Registry created by the original settlement will be required to search for rightsholders who have not yet come forward and to hold revenue on their behalf.
• After five years, a portion of revenue generated by these “orphan” works can be used to locate rightsholders, but can no longer be used for the Registry’s general operations or redistributed to other rightsholders.
• After ten years, the Registry can ask the court to distribute these funds to nonprofits benefiting rightsholders and the reading public, and may provide abandoned funds to the appropriate government authority in compliance with state property laws.
• The Registry will now include an independent, court-approved trustee who will represent rightsholders of orphan works in order to protect their interests and to license their works to third parties.

Revisions also address anti-trust concerns:

As Google first announced in September 2009, any book retailer — Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstores, or other retailers — will be able to sell consumers online access to the out-of-print books covered by the settlement, including unclaimed books. Rightsholders will still receive 63% of the revenue, while retailers will keep the majority of the remaining 37%. This provision has been explicitly written into the revised agreement as a Google obligation.

The financial terms of the settlement remain unchanged; Google will still pay $125 million to scan books.

Although Google has conceded on some points, some critics of the settlement remain dissatisfied. Peter Brantley, co-chair of the Open Book Alliance, called the revisions “sleight of hand” and said, “None of the proposed changes appear to address the fundamental flaws illuminated by the Department of Justice and other critics that impact public interest. ”

Judge Denny Chin of the New York District Court must approve the settlement before it is final. According to Google’s FAQ on the matter, “The Court will set a timeline, which will likely include a notice period, an objection period, and a Final Fairness hearing in early 2010.”