Since 2010 the Internet Archive has built a massive online lending library of over 1 million titles based on a disputed (or invented, depending upon your perspective) view of copyright: They have scanned books from libraries, including a significant corpus of recent, in-copyright books, and lend the digital versions on the same one-lend-at-a-time-per-copy rule that publishers impose on ebooks that they lawfully license to library customers. The IA calls this “controlled digital lending,” which has been vigorously disputed in recent years by publishing organizations including the SFWA, the Authors Guild, and the AAP. That challenge may become more urgent now […]
Archives for November 2019
Judge in Parneros v. Barnes & Noble Discourages Bookseller’s “Risky Motion”
Attorneys in Parneros v. Barnes & Noble sat before Judge John Koeltl as the business day closed November 4 to discuss Barnes & Noble’s intent to move for summary judgement on two of its former ceo’s three claims — defamation and breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Judge Koeltl called it “a risky notion” more than once, noting that the mere fact of the timing of his termination — 2 weeks before contractual benefits were due to accrue — gives credibility to the fair dealing claim, whatever board members might have said so far in discovery. Koeltl […]
People, Etc.
Rachel Kim has been promoted to agent at 3 Arts Entertainment. Navah Wolfe will acquire and edit a number of novellas for Subterranean Press. She was at Saga Press. Alexandra Machinist has been promoted to head of the Media Rights department at ICM, continuing to represent authors as well. Publishing co-heads Jennifer Joel and Esther Newberg said in a statement, “In addition to being a phenomenal literary agent, Alexandra is known to have surpassingly sharp instincts for identifying the kinds of high concept commercial material that not only tops bestseller lists, but also translates to the box office.” Jodi Price […]
Penguin Random House to Take Over Baker & Taylor’s Reno Warehouse
Penguin Random House will take over the operation and management of Baker & Taylor’s former Reno, NV fulfillment center, giving the publisher and its distribution clients a sizable facility to service accounts in the western US. The Reno location comprises 244,000 square feet of warehouse capacity, and joins PRH’s distribution centers in Westminster, MD and Crawfordsville, IN. PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh says in the announcement, “We have discussed having a western fulfillment center for years, and now is the perfect time to make that happen. Creating a western hub in the Penguin Random House supply chain expands our distribution […]
Hachette Book Group Fends Off A Justice Department Attempt to Unmask Anonymous
The head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division Joseph Hunt wrote to Hachette Book Group general counsel Carol Ross, as well as literary agents Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn at Javelin, trying to unmask the author of the forthcoming book A WARNING, by Anonymous. The DOJ wants to know if the author is potentially subject to pre-publication review as part of their Federal employment. But as has been reinforced in recent instances, from Edward Snowden’s book (which the government is suing over) to Amaryllis Fox’s book (in which so far they appear to have given her a pass for […]
More Picks: Apple Books, Reese, and the Best Illustrated Children’s
Apple Books‘ November picks include Shannon Pufahl’s On Swift Horses, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2019 Fall/Winter Sampler, and Lyssa Kay Adams’ The Bromance Book Club, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2019 Romance edition. The rest of the list: Blue Moon, by Lee Child A Minute to Midnight, by David Baldacci The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern The Family Upstairs, by Lisa Jewell This Early of Mine, by Kate Bateman The Andromeda Evolution, by Michael Crichton and Daniel H. Wilson Call Down the Hawk, by Maggie Stiefvater In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado Little Weirds, by Jenny Slate […]