It will come as no great surprise that Julian Assange has released correspondence with Canongate and purported transcripts of apparently-taped phone calls with Canongate publisher Jamie Byng. Though Canongate published the unauthorized draft in part due to admitted “financial imperative,” according to an email from Assange’s agent Caroline Michel, by going ahead with publication, Canongate now is obligated to pay Assange, “in accordance with the agreement, the remaining amounts of £225,000 on delivery of the complete manuscript and £175,000 on first UK publication.” (That should provide enough to pay back Knopf and still leave some for Assange.) As we noted […]
Legal
Palin Accuses McGinniss of Defamation and “May” File Claim
Sarah Palin’s Anchorage attorney has written to Crown, saying that Joe McGinniss’s book THE ROGUE “defamed” the Palins and that both the publisher and author “clearly knew the statements were false [and] admitted they had no basis in fact or reality.” The letter advises “that a claim may be brought against you.” (Or national attention for the threat may turn out to suffice.) It also lays out an argument that would have to be made before a court that McGinniss somehow “waived the attorney client privilege” when he made a casual reference in an email to what the Random House […]
Court Finally Approves BN’s Bid For Borders IP
Federal bankruptcy court Judge Martin Glenn finally approved Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million winning bid for the bulk of Borders’ intellectual property on Monday afternoon after various privacy concerns voiced last week by an independent ombudsman were worked out by all parties. Reuters reported that at the hearing, Borders lawyer Andrew Glenn said the deal will give customers 15 days to opt out of the transfer by responding to an email that will be sent out once the deal closes, though that date has not been decided upon yet. Further information on how the more than 48 million Borders customers […]
Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction Over Parody of ‘Elf On The Shelf’
On September 22 Georgia District Court Judge Amy Totenberg denied CCA and B’s bid last month, as part of a 19-count lawsuit on copyright and trademark infringement, to stop the October 18 publication of Adams Media’s ELF OFF THE SHELF: A Christmas Tradition Gone Bad, a parody of the bestselling holiday children’s book ELF ON THE SHELF. In denying the permanent injunction, Judge Totenberg ruled that Adams Media’s book met the definition of a parody, that stopping publication of ELF OFF THE SHELF “until a trial on the merits would eliminate this prime time for Defendant’s book marketing” since Adams […]
BN’s Privacy Issues Are Holding Up the Other Borders IP Sales
A lengthy hearing in federal bankruptcy court Thursday did little to resolve a dispute over recommendations from a consumer privacy ombudsman that leaves Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid for Borders’ intellectual property still in doubt. The asset purchase agreement called for a “drop-dead” deadline of September 30, but Judge Glenn flat-out said there was “no way” any deal could be reached in time at the current rate. For now, the parties will reconvene Monday, September 26 at 4 PM. As Judge Glenn heard statements from lawyers for Borders, the creditors committee, Barnes & Noble, as well as the privacy […]
Assange Says Canongate Is “Profiteering” from “Unfinished Draft”
Julian Assange issued a lengthy statement via WikiLeaks last night, saying that Canongate’s publication Thursday of the early draft of his book over his objections is “old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity — screwing people over to make a buck.” He says the house is “profiteering from an unfinished and erroneous draft.” Assange says the manuscript that became the basis of publication–which Canongate has acknowledged was a first draft–is rather “a narrative and literary interpretation of a conversation between the writer [Andrew O’Hagan] and me.” Assange says it was never submitted to the house at all; instead, he says O’Hagan’s researcher provided […]