World Scene: United States

2 to stay away from Britney

A judge on Tuesday ordered Britney Spears' former self-styled manager Sam Lutfi to stay away from the pop star for three years, after the singer's father accused Lutfi of trying to undermine the conservatorship Spears lives under.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aviva Bobb also issued the same order to attorney Jon Eardley, who has presented himself as Spears' lawyer. Lutfi and Eardley were told to stay at least 100 meters away from Spears, her family and her homes.

Google books case delayed

The federal court overseeing Google Inc's settlement over its book-scanning program is giving authors four more months to opt out of the deal and review its potential pitfalls.

Instead of a May 5 deadline, the court ruled on Tuesday that authors now have until Sep 4 to review the agreement. Under the Google Print Library Project, snippets from millions of out-of-print but copyright-protected books have been indexed online by Michigan and other libraries. Google has called the project an invaluable chance for books to receive increased exposure.

But in a class-action suit filed in 2005, the Authors Guild alleged that Google was "engaging in massive copyright infringement".

(China Daily 04/30/2009 page10)