NEW YORK, October 7, 2009 (AFP) - Google and US authors and publishers were instructed by a judge Wednesday to submit a renegotiated settlement by November 9, clearing the way for millions of books to be scanned and sold online.

"I will expect an amended agreement for preliminary approval," said Denny Chin, the US District Court judge who is presiding over the controversial legal settlement between the Internet giant and authors and publishers.

An attorney for the US Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers said the revised deal was on track.

"The parties have worked on a daily basis, assiduously," Michael Boni said. "We have gone a long way to identify and negotiate amendments to the settlement."

Boni said the November 9 target for a preliminary hearing on the settlement was realistic.

"In the best case scenario we would target late December, early January for the final fairness hearing," when Chin will rule whether the settlement can go ahead or not, he said.

Daralyn Durie, representing Google, also said the deal was within reach. "The parties' expectation is that we will be able to present an amended settlement agreement," she said.

Google and the authors and publishers reached the settlement last year to a copyright infringement suit they filed against the Mountain View, California, company in 2005.

Under the settlement, Google agreed to pay 125 million dollars to resolve outstanding claims and establish an independent "Book Rights Registry," which would provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitize their books.

Rival technology companies, privacy advocates, consumer watchdog groups and the French and German governments are among those who have filed objections to the settlement with the court.

The original version of the settlement also met opposition from the US Justice Department, which asked Chin to bring the parties back to the table.

The Justice Department said the book-scanning project "has the potential to breathe life into millions of works that are now effectively off limits" but raises copyright and anti-trust issues in its current form.

The Open Book Alliance, an opponent of the settlement which includes the non-profit Internet Archive and Google rivals Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo!, called for transparency in drafting a new deal.

"Whatever revised settlement Google and its partners unveil on November 9th must be subject to full review and scrutiny by the vast array of stakeholders -- authors, academics, consumer advocates, privacy groups, libraries, and others -- who have spoken out," the Open Book Alliance said in a statement.

"It’s also clear that the settlement partners have zero interest in creating an open process that takes input from critical stakeholders," it added.

"Instead, they proposed more of the same -- secret, back room negotiations -- rather than an open, transparent and collaborative process."

Although the dispute appears to be heading for resolution, Chin did raise one unexpected problem: his office being inundated with paperwork in a case that is all about the online world.

Chin sparked laughter in the courtroom as he pleaded with lawyers to submit documents electronically, since his office had "only one small scanner" to handle hard copies.

"In this case of all cases there ought to be an electronic way of handling this," Chin said.