In Wiley’s aggressive legal campaign against individuals they allege shared copies of various “For Dummies” books in violation of their copyright via BitTorrent, the company recently named a few of the previously anonymous defendants and asked for a jury trial. TorrentFreak observes that “if one or more of the three cases indeed proceeds to a full trial it will be the first time that actual evidence against BitTorrent infringers is tested in court.” Wiley attorney William Dunnegan tells the BBC: “We are asking people who are identified by their ISPs as being copyright infringers to pay the minimum amount due […]
Legal
Judge Sets Hearing on DOJ Settlements for July 27 as Hachette and Harper Near Settlement With 50 States
At a status conference Wednesday afternoon in New York District Court, Judge Denise Cote heard from lawyers representing Apple, contesting publishers Penguin and Macmillan, and the three publishers – Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins — that settled with the Department of Justice and are working towards a similar outcome with as many as all 50 states. Hachette and Harper confirmed they signed a memorandum of understanding with 16 states and Puerto Rico, Bloomberg reported, and “they hope to have a settlement with all 50 states completed by June 11,” exactly 60 days from when both the DOJ and state […]
Supreme Court Will Hear Case On Importing Foreign Textbooks Into US
On Monday the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case pitting USC doctoral candidate in mathematics Supap Kirtsaeng against Wiley for importing textbooks from his native Thailand into the United States. Assuming the Court actually comes to clear ruling, it will have broad ramifications for the publishing community. Just two years ago the court deadlocked 4-4 on a similar, but less directly publishing-related, case, Costco vs. Omega, allowing an appeals court decision in favor of Omega (and by extension, publishers) to stand. Wiley’s original 2008 suit charged that Kirtsaeng violated Wiley’s copyright by importing between $900,000 and $1.2 million […]
Press Defends Publishers Over Justice (and Amazon)
It’s rare to see the NYT and WSJ philosophically aligned on how the government uses its power, but they and others in press seem to be coming together to raise questions about why the Department of Justice is beating up on publishers, apparently serving the interests of a retailer bigger than the entire industry. Holman Jenkins Jr. writes in the WSJ, “in essence, Justice says that, beginning in 2008, several plankton, in the form of five publishers, conspired against a whale, Amazon, whose monopoly clout had imposed a $9.99 retail price for e-books.” He argues: “Given Amazon’s dominance, it’s hardly […]
Meanwhile, The EU Looks to Settle With Every Publisher Except Penguin
Following yesterday’s news from the Department of Justice, the European Commission’s parallel investigation of agency ebook price may be close to a settlement among most of the parties involved as well. Multiple news reports indicate that Apple and Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster – but not Penguin – have all sent proposals to the EC to settle the case. S&S spokesperson Adam Rothberg told Bloomberg they are in “active and productive discussions” with the EC. Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition chief, said in a statement that he welcomed an early resolution and was engaged in “fruitful discussions” with the […]
Penguin’s Makinson: “We Have Done Nothing Wrong”
Penguin Group ceo John Makinson issued a statement about the lawsuit his company faces from the Department of Justice and a group of attorneys general on Wednesday. He writes: “A responsible company does not choose a path of litigation with US Government agencies without carefully weighing the implications of that course of action.” But, Makinson says, “we have done nothing wrong. The decisions that we took, many them of them costly and difficult, were taken by Penguin alone.” As for Justice’s complaint filed today, “the document contains a number of material misstatements and omissions, which we look forward to having […]