James Grimmelmann has published a paper on the whole Google Books saga. It’s called The Elephantine Google Books Settlement, and it’s available in PDF form now. He describes it thusly:
It’s an attempt to boil down the settlement into a single clear concept that makes sense of the whole thing: the settlement used an opt-out class action to bind copyright owners (including the owners of orphan works) to future uses of their books by a single defendant. This is not a piece of close legal analysis; instead, it’s an attempt at a big picture view of the legal issues raised by the settlement.
The abstract and related articles are available at his website. If you haven’t kept up with this stuff, this is a very accessible and enjoyable way to make yourself an authority on the matter. You’ll be the hit of your next cocktail party!