In a strongly worded memo issued Monday afternoon, the Authors Guild took issue with Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library for Prime customers, in particular those titles available without express permission from publishers and authors. “How can Amazon get away with this? By giving its boilerplate contract with these publishers a tortured reading,” the Guild said, adding that permission appeared to be dispensed with “because, as Amazon apparently sees it, its contracts with these publishers merely require it to pay publishers the wholesale price of the books that Amazon Prime customers download.” The reasoning is “nonsense”, from the AG’s understanding of Amazon’s […]
Legal
Bookselling: BN Asked Justice to Investigate Microsoft; Australia Prepares to Reduce Import Ban to 14 Days
In documents filed with the International Trade Commission as part of the patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Microsoft, Barnes & Noble indicated that over the spring and summer they appealed to the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft on anti-trust grounds. “Microsoft’s willingness to bully small players with expensive litigation raises a substantial barrier to entry in any market in which it claims dominance,” general counself for BN Eugene DeFelice wrote, the WSJ reports. “Microsoft’s exorbitant licenses for its patents entrench the dominant players in the relevant markets because those players can afford to take a license, while small players cannot.” WSJ […]
HarperCollins Paid $200M To Acquire Thomas Nelson
News Corp disclosed in its quarterly 10-Q report on Friday that HarperCollins acquired Thomas Nelson for $200 million, and that the deal took place in October. The number is less than half the $473 million former owner InterMedia paid for Thomas Nelson back in 2006. The filing also disclosed that HarperCollins is now subject to 23 different consumer class action suits filed in New York and California relating to purported anti-trust issues and the use of the agency model by the six largest publishing houses. The defendants, including HarperCollins, filed a motion with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to […]
eNews: Wiley Sues 27 BitTorrent Users Over Piracy; New Funding For Educational App Publisher Mindshare; and More
Last week Wiley filed suit in Manhattan federal court against 27 John Doe defendants who illegally downloaded various FOR DUMMIES titles from Ukraine-based Torrent website demonoid.me on October 18 and 19. The John Does are identified for now only by their IP addresses, all within the state of New York. Wiley claims in the suit that these defendants “are contributing to a problem that threatens the profitability of Wiley. Although Wiley cannot determine at this time the precise amount of revenue that it has lost as a result of peer-to-peer file sharing of its copyrighted works though BitTorrent software, the […]
Copyright Office Outlines Forthcoming Projects
The US Copyright Office published a report on their priorities and special projects for the next two years, which is something between a wishlist and a to-do list. A number of their topics for further study are items that had been forestalled by the now-rejected Google Books Settlement–and still might not move forward since to a large extent they require action by Congress. Nonetheless, the office has prepared preliminary analysis “identifying the issues related to mass book digitization—developments” and plans on further “research and policy discussions.” They say they “will continue to provide analysis and support to Congress” on dealing with […]
In Countersuit, Kampmann and Midpoint Trade Claim Kump “Misappropriated Trade Secrets”
On October 17 Midpoint Trade Books ceo Eric Kampmann and Midpoint director and minority shareholder Christopher Bell filed their response to Midpoint co-founder Gail Kump’s lawsuit, in which she alleged breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and other corporation law violations. After categorically denying Kump’s claims, Kampmann and Bell add five counter-claims of their own, asking for a total of $5 million in damages on the grounds that Kump misappropriated trade secrets, breached her duties as an officer and director of Midpoint, and created “torturous interference with ongoing contractual relationships.” They assert that Kump’s employment by the National Book […]