Federal Judge John Sprizzo gave his tenative approval to the $125 million proposed settlement between Google and the Authors Guild--a lawsuit that fought Google's efforts to scan books into a giant database.

As we reported earlier, the Guild sued Google over efforts to scan millions of pages of books from major university libraries into a book database. The settlement includes a stipulation that Google will spend $34.5 million helping create an independent Book Rights Registry that will monitor book copyrights on the Internet. Yahoo has the news:

"A judge has tentatively approved a settlement of lawsuits between Google and book authors and publishers that may put millions of out-of-print texts online ... [Judge] Sprizzo in Manhattan gave initial approval Friday. His order was put in the public record on Monday."

Visit this page to read PDF copies of the settlement. (Via.)