On March 22, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected a proposed class-action settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Google. The decision was a victory for WLF, which filed briefs urging rejection because the settlement was unfair to authors and would grant Google unfair competitive advantages over rival firms. The underlying lawsuit claims that Google has been engaged in improper scanning and indexing of published works, violating copyrights belonging to authors and publishers. The parties agreed to settle the lawsuit, but settlement of a class action requires the approval of the presiding judge. After accepting comments on the proposed settlement from WLF and others, the judge determined that the settlement was unfair to authors who have involuntarily been made a part of the class. The court noted that the settlement would grant Google an exclusive license to scan the books of authors who never consented.