In a lawsuit brought by Cengage Learning, McGraw Hill, Macmillan Learning, and Elsevier against Google, Judge Jennifer L. Rochon dismissed the plaintiff’s claims that the tech giant engaged in vicarious copyright infringement due to the use of Google Shopping to sell pirated digital textbooks. “Google exercises no control over the infringing Pirate Sellers’ third-party websites, where the actual alleged infringement takes place,” the opinion states. It continues, “The fact that ‘search engines [can] effectively cause a website to disappear by removing it from their search results’ is not enough to give rise to vicarious liability.” The judge, however, allowed one […]
Archives for June 2025
Forthcoming: ‘The Look’ by Michelle Obama
On November 4, Crown will publish THE LOOK by Michelle Obama with her stylist Meredith Koop, a book about the former First Lady’s style in her own words. A limited-run signed deluxe edition will be published the same day. “This book is a celebration of fashion, but more importantly, I hope it is a celebration of confidence, identity, and authenticity, and an inspiration to think deeply about how we choose to define style and beauty,” Obama writes in the introduction. “….During our years in the White House, people were constantly commenting on my looks and dissecting my clothing choices. That’s […]
Unbound/Boundless Co-Founder Apologizes After Resignation
Co-founder of Unbound and Boundless John Mitchinson said he is “more sorry than words can say” in a statement about his resignation from the company after months of financial turmoil and criticism over unpaid debts. Mitchinson explained that he completely severed ties with the company because of “the revelation last week that the investment money we had been promised in May was going to fall substantially short,” so the company could not fulfill its planned payments of monies owed to authors from prior to the bankruptcy sales. (This is a new explanation for the abrupt change in plans.) Seven other […]
Print Sales For Romance Books Up 24 Percent
Circana reports that the romance market continues to grow, with year-to-date print sales up 24 percent from the same period last year. A total of 51 million units have been sold in the past 12 months, nearly doubling sales from four years ago. While some of this growth can be attributed to Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm, which sold 1,288,300 hardcovers across deluxe and standard editions in its first week, the category shows double-digit growth even excluding the Yarros. Top-growing romance authors include H.D. Carlton, Rina Kent, and Elsie Silver. Circana observes that, “A desire for dark subjects is surfacing within the […]