—Competitors: Less surprisingly, Google’s rivals remain up in arms. The Open Book Alliance—which is made up of Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), and some other entities—put out a statement saying the changes were too minor: “By performing surgical nip and tuck, (the parties) are attempting to distract people from their continued efforts to establish a monopoly over digital content access and distribution; usurp Congress’s role in setting copyright policy; lock writers into their unsought registry, stripping them of their individual contract rights; put library budgets and patron privacy at risk; and establish a dangerous precedent by abusing the class action process.”

No happy words there from a group that says it does not want to have one entity controlling the distribution of what it is calling “the world’s largest digital database of books.”

Next steps? Google says a hearing will likely be held in early 2010. Before then, expect a slew of new filings from interested parties, including the DOJ.