Federal Judge Denise Cote ruled against Apple in the government’s ebook price-fixing case even faster than was expected, fulfilling her preliminary inclination expressed before the trial began. (“As the parties were informed, the Court prepared a draft opinion in advance of the bench trial based on the witness affidavits and other documents submitted with the pretrial order and the arguments of counsel in their trial memoranda.”) Judge Cote found, “The Plaintiffs have shown that the Publisher Defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating […]
Legal
Legal: Penguin Drops Several Author Lawsuits; McIntosh & Otis Sues Pinkus
As noted last fall, Penguin filed multiple lawsuits to recover advances from over a dozen authors whom the publisher says never delivered their manuscripts. With the merger with Random House completed last week, we wondered about the status of these lawsuits and discovered Penguin dropped more than half the complaints “with prejudice” – meaning each side was responsible for any legal fees incurred. (When reached for comment a Penguin spokesperson said “As was Penguin’s desire, many of the lawsuits have been settled amicably.”) New Yorker staff writer Rebecca Mead was sued for $20,000 over a 2003 deal to collect her […]
Appeals Court Vacates Class Certification in Google Books Lawsuit Until Fair Use Issues Are Resolved
In a brief five-page ruling, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Judge Denny Chin’s June 2012 certification of the Authors Guild as a class in the long-running Google Books lawsuit, which itself was a repeat of the original 2005 class certification. The appeals court concluded that class certification “was premature in the absence of a determination by the District Court of the merits of Google’s ‘fair use’ defense.” They also opined that “Google’s claim that plaintiffs are not representative of the certified class” is “an argument which, in our view, may carry some force.” So the actual issues of […]
Penguin Asks Judge Cote to Dismiss Class Action-Seeking Lawsuit Against Author Solutions
Just one day after wrapping up the Apple ebook price fixing trial, Judge Cote is in the midst of a different publishing industry-related lawsuit. Last Friday Penguin filed a motion to dismiss a class action-seeking lawsuit filed on April 26 by three authors against Author Solutions, which Penguin acquired in July 2012. In the motion, Penguin alleges the lawsuit from three ASI customers — Jodi Foster, Kelvin James, and Terry Hardy — was a “misguided attempt to make a federal class action out of a series of gripes by two of them about alleged typographical and formatting errors and supposed […]
The Finale: Does Judge Cote’s Belief the Publishers Are Guilty Exonerate or Implicate Apple?
The DOJ’s ebook price fixing trial against Apple came to an end Thursday with closing arguments from both sides. Apple lead lawyer Orin Snyder began his summation in the clearest possible terms: “Apple did not conspire to fix prices with any publisher. Let me repeat that. Apple did not conspire with a single publisher to fix prices in the eBook industry.” Rather, Snyder said near the end of his presentation, “Apple’s entry simply crystallized market forces and structural changes that were well underway before Apple met with a single publisher.” He argued, “We know of no other case where a defendant has […]
The Defense Rests, As Judge Cote Says “The Issues Have Shifted”
Just after 2:30 PM on Wednesday afternoon Apple rested its case in the ebook price-fixing trial. Expert witnesses Michelle Burtils and Kevin Murphy, as well as head of the iBookstore Robert McDonald, completed their testimony and closing arguments will take place Thursday. As previously reported, the government and Apple are each allotted two and a half hours each to make concluding remarks (and answer any final questions Judge Cote has.) Different accounts over Apple’s ebook market share continued as McDonald disagreed with Eddy Cue. His written testimony, which he stood by, indicates, “While it is difficult to obtain definitive information on […]