CEO, Google

Page, the CEO of Google, and Sergey Brin, the company's co-founder, are just a little ambitious: all they want to do is open up the world's books to the world's readers via the magical process of digitisation. And all would be going a little bit more smoothly were it not for the highly controversial matter of copyright.
In the rapidly evolving world of online information, it seems incredible that the Google book settlement – the legal battle between Google and ­authors and publishers – has been grinding its way through the courts for six years in a manner reminiscent of Charles Dickens's Jarndyce and Jarndyce. That's certainly how it struck US district judge Denny Chin. In an attempt to hurry matters along, he imposed a deadline of 15 September on all parties. If they did not come to an agreement by that date, he would bring the matter to trial.

However, no agreement was forthcoming, and so at a conference on the appointed day, Judge Chin set out a strict pre-trial schedule. If it is followed, motions for summary judgment will be due by 31 May 2012, opposition briefs by 9 July and replies by 31 July.

Whatever happens next, one thing seems more or less certain: with Google striking deals with libraries throughout the world, as well as developing an ebook store for the UK market, the genie is unlikely to return to the bottle.