Google is trying to settle a class action lawsuit brought by authors and publishers, claiming that the search giant has violated their rights by scanning books and putting them in a database, as well as displaying extracts of the books online.
A filing submitted in New York on Friday would restrict the number of works digitised, meaning that only books published in Canada, Australia, the UK and the US will be scanned.
Hopes that the new terms would put an end to the lawsuit look likely to be dashed as The Open Book Alliance, the consortium opposing the deal, which includes Microsoft and Amazon, has said that it does not address the flaws in the initial deal Google did with the American book industry.
Peter Brantley, co-chair of the Open Book Alliance, said: "Our initial review of the new proposal tells us that Google and its partners are performing a sleight of hand; fundamentally, this settlement remains a set-piece designed to serve the private commercial interests of Google and its partners."
Google's goal is to make thousands of out-of-print books widely available by digitising them and making them available to read online or printed out at a relatively low cost.
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