Matthew Sag writes:
On November 13, 2009, the parties in the Google Book litigation filed an Amended Settlement Agreement and a motion for preliminary approval of the amended settlement with the District Court. The amended agreement is available here. Elinor Mills at CNET has a good summary of the revised agreement.
The most significant change appears to be the narrowing of the scope of out-of-print works. The revised settlement is limited to U.S. works registered with the Copyright Office and non-U.S. works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, or published in Canada, the United Kingdom or Australia. According to Google’s FAQ, “After hearing feedback from foreign rightsholders, the plaintiffs decided to narrow the class to include countries with a common legal heritage and similar book industry practices.” To sweeten the deal for Australia, Canada and the UK, their publishers and authors will have their own representation on the board of the rights registry which oversees the settlement.
Read more on Concurring Opinions.