Google Inc’s plans to bring an immense library to the Internet has been dealt a major setback by a US judge on Tuesday, rejecting a settlement with authors and publishers over Google’s digital book-scanning project.

Google is facing another obstacle to their plans to offer an online library and bookstore, as a group of photographers, illustrators, and visual artists are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company's attempts to scan and display books is a violation of their copyrights.

The Justice Department criticized on Thursday a revised legal agreement that would allow Google Inc. to build a vast digital library, saying the deal failed to address antitrust and copyright concerns.

A federal judge in New York set a November 9th deadline on Wednesday for Google and representatives of US authors to submit a renegotiated settlement that would clear the way for millions of out-of-print books to be published online.

The Department of Justice advised a federal judge on Friday to reject a proposed legal settlement between Google Inc and a large group of authors and publishers.