Google’s inclusion of millions of orphan works in their big scanning project–and their plan to profit from these still-copyrighted, unclaimed works–was a hot topic at the settlement symposium sponsored by Columbia Law School on March 13.

Now, according to the New York Times, the path to a smooth approval by the federal court may be complicated by a challenge to  the orphan-works inclusion. The groups who believe that Google’s plan is not quite above board include the American Library Association and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. (Look for the mention of Microsoft’s indirect involvement, too.)

Most of the critics, which include copyright specialists, antitrust scholars and some librarians, agree that the public will benefit. But they say others should also have rights to orphan works. And they oppose what they say amounts to the rewriting, through a private deal rather than through legislation, of the copyright rules for millions of texts.