Wednesday afternoon brought the expected additional filings with the court regarding the ebook pricing settlement. Two of the litigating defendants, Apple and Penguin, already had the right to be heard in 5 pages or fewer. The Authors Guild, like attorney Bob Kohn, have asked for permission to file additional remarks as a friend of the court and provided their brief on a conditional basis, subject to Judge Denise Cote’s ruling. Apple’s argument is the boldest–that they are being denied due process of law and penalized by having their ebook contracts with the settling publishers (the Settlers) voided and their MFNs […]
Legal
Authors Guild Tells the Court DOJ Defined The Market Too Narrowly
Though the Authors Guild did file their opposition to the settlement with the court during the public comment period, they have now asked permission to file another 5 pages with Judge Cote as a friend of the court. Their argument is that the DOJ’s response to the public comments “ignores the far-reaching effects of the proposed judgment” and the Guild address the “true impact” in their brief. Similar to one of the arguments made separately by attorney Bob Kohn, the Authors Guild asserts that Justice defined “the relevant market or markets” far too narrowly. “it deems the impact of the […]
Penguin Argues Justice Provided No Evidence that eBook Prices Rose; Offers Their Own Pre-Agency Analysis
Penguin has found Tunney Act grounds of its own to object to the ebook settlement pending with three other publishers: “Here it is: The Emperor has no clothes.” They reason that the core of the government’s case–and the focus of their proposed remedies–is that the agency model caused ebook prices to rise. “Yet the Government has offered no empirical proof to clothe this claim. Rather it has represented to this Court and the public, pursuant to their Tunney Act obligations to disclose ‘determinative documents,’ that there are none, not even pricing studies.” If there are, and if the government has a […]
Apple Says The eBook Settlement Penalizes Them Prior to A Trial and “Is Fundamentally Unfair”
Apple argues to Judge Denise Cote within the mandated five-page limit that the proposed ebook pricing settlement denies them due process, since they are going to trial on the charges–but the settlement “seeks to terminate and rewrite Apple’s bargained for contracts, before a single document has been introduced into evidence, before any witness has testified, and before the Court has resolved the disputed facts.” They add that: “The Court’s decision would be irreversible. Nullifying a non-settling defendant’s negotiated contract rights by another’s settlement is fundamentally unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented. The Government does not cite a single case in which such […]
Court Finds Georgia State University the “Prevailing Party” In Fair Use Case and Awards Them Legal Fees
Last Friday, US Northern District Judge Orinda Evans clarified the ambiguous May ruling in the closely-watched copyright infringement case originally brought in 2008 against Georgia State University. Ruling on the relief for the five cases of copyright infringement in May’s 350-page ruling, Judge Evans essentially declared GSU the real winner in the case, ordering the plaintiffs to pay their legal fees. Which raises an interesting question that no one has been able to answer for us yet: Though the case was brought by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publications, the legal costs of trying the case have […]
Kohn Argues That DOJ Showed Amazon Engaged In Predatory Pricing, And Publisher Response Has to be Legal
Attorney and entrepreneur Bob Kohn continues to aggressively challenge the Department of Justice’s ebook price-fixing case, asking Judge Denise Cote in a series of filings Monday for permission to file an amicus curiae brief of 25 pages (plus an appendix of 12 additional pages), in specific reply to the DOJ’s responses to the public comments. Kohn adds to the calls from other parties for the Judge to hold a hearing before ruling, arguing that to determine if the settlement “is in the public interest, it would be perverse if this decision were made without a public hearing.” He also asks […]