Judge Vince Chhabria of the US District Court in Northern California has dismissed portions of Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden’s class action lawsuit against Meta. The judge granted Meta’s motion to dismiss claims that the output of Meta’s large language model, LLaMA, infringes on their copyrights, saying that he didn’t understand how the AI tool’s output was similar to Silverman’s book. The plaintiffs may amend the claim, but for it to stand they must “argue that LLaMa’s output was substantially similar to their works,” Reuters reports. Meta has not responded to the authors’ main argument, that their books’ […]
Indigo’s Q2 Falls Below Last Year’s Strong Result
Indigo released results for the second quarter of their fiscal year, ended September 30, reporting $207 million in sales, down 12 percent from the previous year, and a loss in adjusted EBITDA of $(13.8) million, compared to $(10.6) million. Net loss during the quarter was $(22.4) million, compared to a net loss of $(15.9) million in the previous year. The company cites consumer “price sensitivity” as a reason for the drop—because people came out for discounts during promotional events—and a stark comparison to last year, which was the highest ever in merchandise sales. The company also launched their new ecommerce […]
People 11/9
At Scholastic, Shifa Kapadwala has been promoted to senior manager, global brand publicity.
WH Smith High Street Sales Fall Slightly
WH Smith announced preliminary results for the year, ended August 31, with sales up 28 percent to £1.79 billion. Trading profit, driven by the Travel division, was up £74 million to £164 million, and group profit before tax was £110 million, compared to £63 million in 2022 High street sales were £469 million, down from £473 million, with trading profit falling £2 million to £43 million, “in line with expectations.” The company closed 13 High Street stores in the period, bringing their total to 514. They say they are focused on efficiency and cost management, with savings of £15 million […]
Bertelsmann Sales Down Slightly in Q3
Bertelsmann briefly announced results a third quarter sales update, with revenues of €4.9 billion ($4.9 billion), compared to €5.1 billion in the same quarter last year. The company expects a “moderate” increase in full-year sales with a stable operating profit and a slight decline in EBITDA, following the sale of their shares in Majorel. As usual, there are very few divisional specifics. Looking at the first nine months together, they highlight Penguin Random House’s success from early in the year, with Prince Harry’s SPARE still their top-selling title. The only third quarter releases mentioned are picture books. “Despite an overall […]
People 11/7
Bel Banta has joined Harper as senior publicist. She was previously at Viking.