Authors can delay decision on online books-U.S. judge

US District Judge Denny Chin granted a four-month extension for a group of authors deciding whether they want to opt out or object to Google's settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Under the proposed settlement agreed upon last October, Google will pay $125 million to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers can register works and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions or book sales. But a separate group of academic authors in Berkeley, California, had petitioned for a delay on deciding whether they should participate in the settlement that paves the way for readers to search through millions of copyrighted books online, browse passages and purchase copies. They no have until September 4 to decide.