Lots of news and blog sites are reporting on the Dept. of Justice response to the Google Book Settlement.

Teleread has a simple summary, referring folks to the 32 page DOJ official response, Resource Shelf summarizes a variety of news sources, and for a simple overview, see the DOJ Press Release.   The DOJ suggests the parties involved consider several changes to the agreement including:

• imposing limitations on the most open-ended provisions for future licensing,
• eliminating potential conflicts among class members,
• providing additional protections for unknown rights holders,
• addressing the concerns of foreign authors and publishers,
• eliminating the joint-pricing mechanisms among publishers and authors, and,
• whatever the settlement’s ultimate scope, providing some mechanism by which Google’s competitors can gain comparable access.