The Google book search settlement seemed all but wrapped up in a bow, that is, until hundreds of objections were filed with the Court, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on September 10 examining the antitrust, privacy and copyright issues implicated by the deal, and then the Department of Justice filed a comment on September 18 urging the Court to reject the settlement.
In my opinion, the Court simply couldn't ignore the significant concerns raised about the deal and wouldn't approve the settlement without changes. Apparently, neither Google nor the Authors Guild were confident about their chances because on September 22, they asked the Court to cancel the October 7 hearing to potentially finalize the deal.
But, this delay is just that… a delay. These parties have invested a lot of time and money. It has the potential to be a huge commercial success and an enormous benefit to society in terms of access to information. So there is still momentum to finalize a deal.
Reaching a final agreement will be difficult. There are many stakeholders who need to be at the table and many obstacles that need to be addressed, like orphan works. Sure it is frustrating when the law seems to get in the way of rapid technological progress. But, it isn't okay to privately negotiate around the rules to the exclusive benefit of a few. We all have a stake in this deal, and we ought to do it right.