Google, and its co-conspirators in the Google Book Settlement deal — the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers — have been given yet another extension by Judge Denny Chin in their attempt to render the settlement legal. According to a report on Wired, the group now has “until Friday to drain the swamp of copyright law to let Google build the digital library of the future.”

Of course, it was more than just its inherent and obvious copyright problems that inspired the Department of Justice to advise the court not to approve the settlement (hit the Google category to the left to read umpteen explanations in earlier MobyLives reports). As the Wired piece itself goes on to explain, the DOJ among literally hundreds of others who filed complaints felt the agreement constituted a monopoly, for one thing. But as the MobyLives reports cited parenthetically above note, the settlement had so many problems on so many levels that even its most sober critics thought it would be impossible to salvage, especially in so short a time.

However, as a report in PCMag notes, in the letter to Judge Chin asking for the delay, Google attorney Michael Boni says “The parties have been in discussions with the Department of Justice ….”

So maybe there’s a chance whatever they come up with this time will at least be vaguely legal.