Google's latest effort to settle the copyright lawsuit brought against it by The Authors Guild and several publishers in 2005 suffered a setback on Thursday when the U.S. Department of Justice said that copyright and antitrust issues arising from the revised settlement proposal haven't been adequately addressed.

The lawsuit charged that Google's effort to scan and digitize books violates copyright law. Google and the plaintiffs have been trying to reach an agreement that allows Google to make scanned books available in a limited form online and to sell electronic access to digital books with the consent and participation of copyright owners.

The DoJ filed a statement of interest with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York stating that despite good faith negotiations on the part of the parties involved, "the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: It is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation."
A hearing on the proposed amended settlement is scheduled for February 18 and the judge is likely to take the DoJ's concerns seriously. The original settlement, presented in October 2008, was shot down after widespread criticism.

Google in a statement said that the DoJ's filing "recognizes the progress made with the revised settlement, and it once again reinforces the value the agreement can provide in unlocking access to millions of books in the U.S."

The company said that it is looking forward to Judge Chin's review of the DoJ filing and that the settlement, if approved will expand online access to published works and provide authors and publishers with new ways to distribute their works.

Toyota's public relations nightmare appears far from over.

The beleaguered automaker is facing renewed allegations that it systematically withheld information and ignored safety issues that could have prevented fatal accidents.

Dmitrios Biller, a former Toyota lawyer who handled product liability lawsuits, said in multiple media interviews that the automaker willfully tried to suppress evidence of defects.

"Toyota is a very secretive corporation," Biller told the L.A. Times. "It doesn't believe anybody outside the corporation deserves to know what is going on inside, even if it kills somebody."

"You have to understand that Toyota in Japan does not have any respect for our legal system. They did not have any respect for our laws."

An Austin businessman and two of his companies are accused in an alleged scam using former NFL players to attract investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday filed securities fraud charges in federal court in Austin naming Kurt B. Barton, Triton Financial LLC and Triton Insurance.

The SEC alleges $8.4 million was raised from about 90 investors to purchase an insurance company.

Regulators say the money instead went to pay Triton expenses.

The SEC says Barton and Triton have consented to court orders freezing their assets and appointment of a receiver.

Barton attorney Joe Turner says his client will work with the receiver to ensure that investors "do not lose their money."

A Los Angeles man has pleaded not guilty to running a Ponzi scheme that cheated about 50 investors in a NASCAR merchandise wholesale business out of at least $10 million.

Federal prosecutors say 63-year-old Eliott Dresher was arraigned and ordered held pending trial in U.S. District Court Monday.

The U.S. attorney's office says Dresher claimed investors' money would be used to buy NASCAR apparel and sell it to stores. He claimed he had $70 million in various accounts and his business would return 20 percent every six months.

Dresher ran his scheme for about 10 years before it c

The Supreme Court has declined to take another look at Chrysler's bankruptcy.

The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from the state of Indiana pension funds that earlier challenged the automaker's bankruptcy proceedings. The bulk of Chrysler LLC's assets were sold to Italy's Fiat.

The court previously rejected the pension funds' effort to block the sale.

In the latest appeal, the funds argued that the arrangement worked out with Fiat, and approved by federal courts, violated federal bankruptcy law. The pension funds said they were not trying to reverse the bankruptcy sale, but instead wanted to recover money for themselves and other Chrysler creditors.

Nortel Networks Corp. said late Wednesday it won court approval in the U.S. and Canada to sell two of its business units.

The larger unit, Nortel's global optical networking and carrier ethernet businesses, is going to Ciena Corp. The business is one of the most sought-after assets of Nortel, a once-dominant network gear maker that is selling itself off in pieces after filing for Chapter 11 protection in January.

The deal gives Ciena all products, contracts, and intellectual property, including technology that improves the speed and capacity of fiber optic networks.

Bankruptcy courts in Delaware and Ontario approved the deal over objections by Finnish rival Nokia Siemens Networks, which said that it would be willing to pay $810 million in cash for the business with its partner, One Equity Partners.

General Growth Properties Inc. said Wednesday that it has filed its reorganization plan, and its lenders have agreed to restructure about $9.7 billion in shopping mall mortgage loans, more than previously planned.

Last month the mall operator, which earlier this year filed the largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy case in history, said its lenders had agreed to restructure some $8.9 billion in loans.

The real estate investment trust and about 166 regional shopping centers and subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 protection in April. The company had about $27 billion in debt piled up at the time.

General Growth fell victim to an aggressive expansion during the height of the real estate boom and was unable to service it when credit markets dried up during last year's financial crisis.

General Growth, based in Chicago, is the second-largest U.S. mall operator. The shopping mall loans that are being restructured cover 92 regional shopping centers, office properties, community centers and related subsidiaries.

The company's reorganization plan includes full payment of all undisputed claims against emerging debtors for pre-petition goods and services.

General Growth said the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York is set to confirm its reorganization plan on Dec. 15. If the company obtains all of the necessary approvals for its plan and meets the necessary conditions, General Growth anticipates the regional shopping centers, office properties community centers and other subsidiaries associated with the loans will be out of bankruptcy before year's end.