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 […]
Legal
China’s COL Digital Publishing Group Awarded Copyright Infringement Damages from Apple
Apple has been ordered by Tianjin Binhai People’s Court in China to pay $1.9 million to Chinese online publisher COL Digital Publishing Group after several third party apps were found to be publishing book content without authorization. The court said Apple failed to conduct due diligence on third-party apps to stop infringement. Online platforms in China do not have the same kind of Section 230 protections as in the US, where companies have almost no liability for third-party content. A partner at Shanghai Debund Law Firm You Yunting tells South China Morning Post, “Chinese courts have established rather high standards […]
S&S “Committed” to Fight DOJ and “Will Carry On”
In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Simon & Schuster president and ceo Jonathan Karp echoed Penguin Random House’s statement that they will fight the Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block the merger of the two houses. “Penguin Random House is determined to fight vigorously to bring this transaction to fruition and we will be doing all we can to help in those efforts,” he wrote. Additionally, “We are committed to working together with PRH to fight this lawsuit.” (The DOJ suit names ViacomCBS as a defendant, alongside Bertelsmann and PRH.) Karp writes, “Notably, DOJ has not alleged that the […]
Huge Index of Scholarly Articles Raises Copyright Concerns
An enormous free index of scholarly literature was released on October 7, raising copyright questions, Nature reports. The General Index—which searches more than 100 million journal articles—allows researchers to automatically search a vast amount of published work, including articles protected by paywall. Previously, scholars have only been able to search within articles they subscribe to, and publishers have controlled access to such computerized searches, known as text mining. Creator Carl Malamud says that the index is not a breach of copyright because it only contains words and sentence fragments — albeit 355 billion of them — not the entire text […]
DOJ Sues to Block PRH Acquisition of S&S
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed suit to block the proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion. This time the primary argument is not on behalf of consumers but authors, and authors of “anticipated top-selling books” in particular. Filing in the Washington, DC District Court, the DOJ alleges violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, arguing the acquisition is “likely to substantially lessen competition” for “the acquisition of US publishing rights to books from authors.” That market for “anticipated top-selling books…would be highly concentrated,” the filing argues. “The merger would give […]
Gendell Says Continuing Errors Are the Obstacle to Foundry Author Payments
Former Foundry partner Yfat Reiss Gendell answered former partner Peter McGuigan’s request that the court order her to approve outstanding payments due to authors with an extensive account of what she says have been “erroneous payments.” Going further, Gendell calls the motion “a continuation of the smear campaign that gave rise to” her countersuit for defamation, “falsely portraying Ms. Gendell as the cause of delays of payments owed to Foundry’s authors and agents.” She asks the court to sanction McGuigan “for making the frivolous motion.” McGuigan’s recent filing cited almost $80,000 in payments said to be due and awaiting approval. […]