As the court hearing on the AAP’s motion for a preliminary injunction blocking Maryland’s library ebook lending law proceeded over more than three hours on Monday, there was a consistent theme: Judge Deborah L. Boardman’s considerable questions and comments were the most illuminating part. And it’s important to note that she concluded the lengthy discussions by promising, “It is my intention to issue my decision on this soon. I will not be sitting on this idly, I promise you that.” Overall she had far more questions for Maryland’s attorney. She did press AAP attorney Scott Zebrak on the whether there […]
Legal
Judge Questions Maryland and AAP
The AAP and the state of Maryland appeared before Federal Judge Deborah L. Boardman Monday morning for an extensive hearing on the AAP’s motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the state’s law on library licensing of digital text. After about an hour of questions directed at the attorney for Maryland, the court took a break at 12:20 before pressing the AAP about their ability to meet the stringent legal conditions for a preliminary injunction. So this is an interim report that we will update later today on our site. Judge Boardman made it clear that she had significant questions about […]
Esper Memoir To Be Published With “Minimal Redactions”
Former secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper’s memoir A Sacred Oath, about his experience working under the Trump administration, will be published by William Morrow in May with “minimal redactions,” after the Department of Defense reversed its decision to block sections that contained information they claimed was classified. Esper sued the DOD in November, claiming the agency redacted “multiple words, sentences, and paragraphs from approximately sixty pages” with “no written explanation” to justify the deletions. Following the Pentagon’s announcement that it had reversed its decision, Esper dropped the lawsuit. Esper’s lawyer, Mark S. Zaid, said in a statement, “The prepublication […]
Maryland Concedes They Are Regulating Where Congress Would Not Go
In a bizarre reply to the AAP’s request for a preliminary injunction, the state of Maryland both concedes and underscores that Congress specifically declined to create a first sale doctrine for digital goods, leaving it to the marketplace to adapt. Unhappy with that decision and its effect, Maryland has elected to regulate the marketplace for copyrighted goods, in conflict with Congress and the law. They justify that with the novel suggestion that once copyrighted goods are offered to the marketplace, they have magically “left the world of copyright” — except they haven’t — and “entered the marketplace for such transactions,” […]
AAP Further Exposes Flaws In Maryland’s Library Law
The AAP reinforced their case in asking for a temporary restraining order blocking Maryland’s new library ebook/digital law, replying on Friday to the state’s weak defense. As the AAP’s new brief underscores, Maryland’s own legal reply lays bare their ploy of insisting their law is just about consumer protection while rooting the justification in complaints about copyright: As they put it: “Maryland opens its brief by stating, ‘This case is not about copyright protection,’ but follows with an extensive discussion that proves the opposite.” As a result, “Maryland’s attempts to justify the Maryland Act make the case for why it […]
Maryland Claims eBook Lending Law Is About “Consumer Protection” Not Copyright, But Clearly Seeks to Remedy Lack of Digital First Sale Doctrine
The state of Maryland filed their reply to the AAP’s motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the state’s new library ebook law while the matter is litigated. The state claims the interference with Federal copyright law is incidental and accidental rather than primary: The AAP’s complaint, they write, “rests on the mistaken assumption the Maryland Act is a copyright law and not a regulation of unfair trade practices. State copyright laws are preempted by federal law, but State laws restraining unfair trade practices are not…. The Maryland Act, by contrast, is a consumer protection statute regulating reasonable terms regarding licensing […]