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Critics of the Google Settlement have asked the judge presiding over the agreement to make sure its opponents are given "sufficient time to study and comment on, any amended settlement agreement". In a court filing, Amazon, Yahoo, and Microsoft, among others, also asked the judge to "reject any proposed restrictions on the scope of objections".
The New York judge Denny Chin has ordered Google and the plaintiffs to deliver a revised Settlement by 9th November, with a final hearing expected to take place in December or early January. At a hearing which took place in early October, the judge was asked to allow Google and its partners to shorten the period for accepting comments or objections from parties affected by the amendments.
But in last week's submission to the court, the critics of the deal rejected this shortened objection period as unrealistic: "We signatories raised different specific concerns and issues about this settlement from a number of different vantage points . . . We are united, however, in our concern that the parties' (Google and the authors) requests to limit the notice, time and scope of objections will be unfair to us and to other class members."
It added: "We are deeply concerned that a shortened process based on minimum additional notice will seriously impair the ability of objectors, amici, and commentators to provided meaningful analysis of the proposed amended agreement to the court."
The opponents also asked for the opportunity to comment on any revised time-table "after the parties submit their proposal but before this court issues orders setting the process for preliminary approval and the final fairness hearing".