Legal

Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper sued the Department of Defense in a Washington, DC District Court for “improperly” blocking parts of his memoir, A Sacred Oath, an account of his time working for President Trump. William Morrow has the book scheduled for publication on May 10, 2022. Esper is the latest in a line of former DOD officials — including retired General Stanley McChrystal and retired Navy Commander Guy Snodgrass — to claim that his pre-publication review was taking an unusually long time,. “He stayed in regular contact to ensure a timely review was occurring and requested specific deadlines for the […]

With fact discovery in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by major publishers against the Internet Archive set to end on December 17, the publishers have complained to Judge John Koeltl that the IA “is stonewalling, hoping to run out the clock.” They asked for a conference to have the judge compel production of missing documents. The attorney writes, “IA has not disputed the relevance of the documents. Instead, IA is simply stonewalling, prejudicing plaintiffs in depositions and case development.” The letter outlines seven categories of documents they are still looking for, saying they “waited several weeks or more for IA […]

The complicated and long-running legal dispute between former Foundry Media partners Yfat Reiss Gendell and Peter McGuigan may be headed towards resolution. Attorneys for both parties filed a letter asking Judge Joel M. Cohen to extend the current dates for discovery (set to end in February 2022), “to pursue mediation and settlement discussions in the Commercial Division Alternative Dispute Resolution Program.” That process “is basically a mediation program” run by the Court, though ultimately “settlement…is purely voluntary.” Gendell had asked the Court to refer the matter to mediation in May, though at the time McGuigan declined.

Vermont publisher Chelsea Green filed a federal lawsuit in a Washington District Court against Senator Elizabeth Warren, claiming she violated the First Amendment in a September 7 letter to Amazon ceo Andy Jassy cautioning the retailer about the role of their algorithm in promoting vaccine conspiracy books. The publisher was joined in the suit by authors of The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal Dr. Joseph Mercola, Ronald Cummins, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In her letter, Warren referred to the book as “vaccine misinformation” and “potentially unlawful.” Warren’s letter was prompted by a […]

It could be a while before we know the outcome of the DOJ’s lawsuit to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster, but the action is already resulting in a bull market for clueless reporting and commentary. From Bloomberg, we get an “analysis” from someone so well versed in publishing they think Penguin acquired Random House (I guess because their name is first?): “Admittedly, it doesn’t look like Penguin’s previous acquisition of Random House harmed the market at all.” The author also fails to understand that Simon & Schuster UK is a relatively small operation and was never […]