However, critics have raised several objections, including what they perceive as excessive control by Google over prices and over so-called "orphan works." The latter are books that are under copyright but whose owners can't be found because the author has died or the publishing house disappeared.

The court where the case is being heard allowed hundreds of backers and critics of the proposed agreement to submit opinions for several months. That comment period closed earlier this month.

, a consumer protection organization that earlier this year urged the DOJ to get involved, filed a 30-page document opposing the agreement, saying it will "strip rights from millions of absent class members, worldwide, in violation of national and international copyright law, for the sole benefit of Google."

There should be a competitive book-search market, while the U.S. Congress must solve the orphan works problem, according to the group. "The parties simply cannot justify this 'solution' which does not adequately protect the Rightsholders and unfairly benefits a single party," reads the Consumer Watchdog statement.

Meanwhile, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) came out in favor of the deal, saying the new book search services will be "extraordinarily valuable, and will make available to the public a vast amount of knowledge and information that is largely inaccessible today." The CDT tempered its endorsement by stating that the new services create "serious privacy concerns" and that the court should take "affirmative action" during the settlement process to make sure reader privacy is protected.