In March Gerald Posner admitted his fall 2009 book MIAMI BABYLON included some passages from Frank Owen’s CLUBLAND. At the time, Posner blamed faulty research methodology, and said “if you use something from another book, a statement from another book, it needs to be in quotations, or if you take something and put it in your own syntax and grammar, you still need to cite it.” He promised to review his book further and revise the material. (This came a month after Posner resigned from the Daily Beast after it was found that he copied material from Miami Herald articles […]
Legal
Connecticut’s Statement on eBook Pricing Focuses on MFN Clauses
Following yesterday’s short piece on the questioning of Apple and Amazon by the Connecticut attorney general’s office they issued a press release and posted letters sent to both companies. AG Richard Blumenthal is currently running for the US Senate seat being vacated by Christopher Dodd. Though favored to win, Blumenthal suffered somewhat in May after admitting that “on a few occasions I have misspoken about my service” in the military, erroneously indicating he had served in Viet Nam. (The NYT also revealed that Blumenthal received multiple deferments between 1965 and 1970 before joining the Marine Corp Reserve.) Some observers wonder […]
Connecticut Joins Texas In Investigating Agency Model eBook Pricing
After our exclusive report in June on preliminary questioning underway from the anti-trust division of the Texas Attorney General’s office into pricing practices for ebooks immediately following Apple’s entry into the marketplace, a New York-based antitrust lawyer told us knowingly that other states were conducting similar inquiries but declined to provide any specifics. Now Bloomberg reports that at least one other player is Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s office, saying “the information was disclosed in an e-mailed statement.” The news service says they are “investigating agreements between the country’s largest e-book publishers and Amazon.com and Apple that may block competitors […]
Supreme Court to Hear Watch Case that Could Affect First-Sale Doctrine
If you’re a copyright geek you’ll be interested in the Omega watch case that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear in their next term. Omega used a copyrighted symbol on their back of their watches to thwart Costco and others from selling lower-priced grey market versions of the company’s watches in the US. The case is important because, in favoring Omega, the district and appeals courts ruled that the first-sale doctrine does not apply to goods first sold outside of the US, even if they are then imported for sale here. As the WSJ notes, “Constrain the first-sale doctrine […]
New Copyright Exceptions Open the Door Somewhat on Text-to-Speech
The Librarian of Congress published six new exemptions to prohibitions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allow the relaxation of digital access in certain circumstances. Most general media is focused on the aspects that let iPhone owners legally overcome some of Apple’s strict rules, but the sixth and final change applies to ebooks and text-to-speech functionality. While TTS still ranks as one of the most overblown issues in the eBook Era, the new rule will certainly attract interest and may lead to some strategic changes. The published text now exempts: “Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing […]
Briefs: Quick Ruling Possible in Burkle/B&N Trial; Figuring Out E-Book Bestseller Lists; and More
After final arguments in the trial stemming from Ron Burkle’s complaint about B&N’s poison pill measures, a Delaware court judge said B&N “may have responded in a reasonable manner last year”, and that he would try to issue a ruling quickly. He didn’t say how soon that would be and acknowledged his ruling may be appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court.AP The New York Times Book Review is now available as a standalone subscription for the Kindle. In related news, TIME’s Andrea Sachs wonders when e-books will be incorporated into the NYT and other bestseller lists, the way it now […]