Countering the criticism by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that the revised $125 million Google Books settlement will adversely affect competition in the book market and undercut copyright law, Google defended its stand in a 67-page filing in the court on Thursday.

With a final fairness hearing on the revised settlement coming up on February 18 in a New York court, Google’s lawyers, apparently trying to convince Judge Denny Chin, said in the filing: “The purpose of copyright law is to promote the creation and distribution of expressive works. The settlement advances this purpose as much as any case or agreement in copyright history.”

The filing not only reinforces Google’s relentless pursuit of holding digital rights to millions of books, but also aims at quieting widespread criticism from its rivals, watchdog groups, state governments and also some foreign governments.

Locking horns with the DOJ, which has objected that the settlement will help Google gain an unfair advantage over its smaller Internet search rivals, Google has argued that its rivals Microsoft and Yahoo had both made digital copies of books, but later abandoned their efforts.

Further refuting DOJ’s argument that the Books arrangement might create a literary lobby and raise book prices, the Google lawyers have stated that Google has “zero percent share” in the book market; and there is no ‘dangerous probability’ that it will acquire monopoly power.