Judge Denny Chin

Been wondering what’s going on with the Google Book Settlement since Judge Denny Chin‘s remarkable decision to reject it? Not much, says a new Publishers Weekly report by Andrew Albanese . He reports that both sides are saying little progress has been made since a progress report given to Chin back on June 1 (see the earlier Moby report), a date given after asking for an extension from what was supposed to have been a progress report in April. One expert now suggests that as many as four or five more extension requests are conceivable, even likely.

As the expert — Patrick J. O’Connor, “an experienced copyright and intellectual property lawyer” — sees it:

“For Google, there is no real hurry,” he noted, adding that the more the e-book market grows, the more public opinion could turn Google’s way, and Google can also show that its library scanning efforts are not causing the kind of harm authors and publishers predicted. Publishers, meanwhile, “are not eager” to litigate, O’Connor suggest, despite their statements raising the possibility.

However, not everyone involved in the case has time to burn. Most obviously, of course, there are the publishers, libraries and writers being ripped off by Google. But then there’s Judge Chin, who was appointed to a new job on a higher court. As O’Connor tells Albanese, “Chin’s new job—and how long he might be able to hang on to cases left over from his old one—could factor into how quickly a new settlement is in place. ‘Eventually, [Chin] would have to give it up,’ O’Connor says, if the settlement process drags on for too long, although it is unclear how long  ‘too long’ would be. And, if a new judge takes over the complex settlement approval process, getting that judge up to speed could mean further delays.”

On the whole, things are still looking good for Google on this one.