With the Department of Justice (DoJ) Friday urging the New York District Court - overseeing the Google Book deal - to reject the contentious settlement in its current form, Google's $125-million settlement with authors and publishers has received its biggest blow thus far!

However, the DoJ also explicitly hinted that further deliberations are possible in case Google rewrites certain provisions of the October 2008 deal, which granted Google sweeping rights to scan and digitize out-of-print books.

In its filing, the DoJ wrote: "The breadth of the proposed settlement - especially the forward-looking business arrangements it seeks to create - raises significant legal concerns. This court should reject the proposed settlement in its current form and encourage the parties to continue negotiations to modify it so as to comply with civil law and the copyright and antitrust laws."

Noting that the proposed Book Settlement "does not meet the legal standards this Court must apply," the DoJ further said that the deal is an extensive class action settlement; and the concerned parties must be aware beforehand of the legal hassles the overtly ambitious project might involve.

Adding that the deal does not comply with Rule 23 of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure and copyright law, the DoJ said: "In the view of the US, each category of objection is serious in isolation, and, taken together, raise cause for concern."