At Penguin Random House, Sashia Sadikot is promoted to director, national accounts, Target adult sales, and Jessica Ko also moves up to director, national accounts, including overseeing the Walmart adult sales team. Both report to Tom Cox. As part of a realignment of PRH’s international sales team, which includes naming three new vice presidents, regional sales director for Asia Akiko Iwamoto and senior director, international marketing and imprint sales Tony Lutkus will leave the company later this month. Laurel Christensen Day will take over as president of Deseret Book Co., replacing Jeff Simpson, who leaves in June to serve a three-year […]
Legal
Gendell Files Counterclaims Against McGuigan, Alleging Defamation Along with “Inattentiveness, Incompetence” and “Unprofessional and Abusive Behavior”
Yfat Reiss Gendell denied the charges made against against her by former Foundry partner Peter McGuigan in his January lawsuit and filed counterclaims of her own, alleging defamation, tortious interference with agents and deals at her firm YRG Partners, breach of contract and more. The filing accuses McGuigan of “years of inattentiveness, incompetence, as well as unprofessional and abusive behavior,” and charges him with creating and spreading “a defamatory smear campaign” designed “to falsely justify his own foolish actions” in freezing both the client and operating accounts of Foundry. In her counterclaims, Gendell seeks damages for reputational harm, lost business […]
Class-Action Law Firm Tries Suing Amazon and Publishers Over the Site’s Dominance In Online Bookselling
Hagens Berman (joined by another firm, Sperling & Slater) filed a second lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Amazon and the five largest trade publishers, this time seeking class-action status on behalf of booksellers, alleging that Amazon has monopolized the online book market and that somehow the big publishers colluded to ensure that Amazon beats them up on terms, all for the sake of controlling their wholesale prices (which they are allowed to do). In January, Hagens Berman had sued Amazon — and then the five largest trade publishers — over Amazon’s monopoly control of the ebook […]
Digital Briefs: Costco Audiobooks, AAP Opposes Library eBook Legislation
Costco started selling value-priced collections of digital audiobooks recently, playable through their own audiobooks app. For now they offer approximately 175 different collections to members. As Maryland (and other states) considers legislation that would require ebook publishers to also “license the book to public libraries in the state on reasonable terms,” the AAP explains in opposition that such state laws are invalid. “Federal copyright law prohibits this type of regulation of copyrights by state governments,” the organization writes. And such legislation also “raises significant Commerce Clause and Due Process Clause concerns and would likely be found to violate the U.S. […]
Penguin Random House’s Deal to Buy S&S Faces Increased Scrutiny In Both US and UK
Penguin Random House’s pending $2.175 billion deal to acquire Simon & Schuster drew headlines Monday following an announcement from the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority that it launched a merger inquiry last Friday. Of potentially greater significance, however, and reported here exclusively, is that the acquisition is now facing a more detailed level of scrutiny from regulators in the US. Within the last week or so, employees report, the Department of Justice extended its review with a “second request” for more detailed information. Second requests require a far more extensive, and expensive, production of documents and information from the deal […]
Skyhorse Claims Use of Woody’s Memoir in New HBO Series is Infringement
Skyhorse Publishing asserts that the use of clips from the audiobook version of Woody Allen’s 2020 memoir Apropos of Nothing in HBO’s new Woody Allen docuseries, Allen v. Farrow infringes the copyrights in the work. The company told Deadline, “We believe that its unauthorized use of the audiobook is clear, willful infringement under existing legal precedent, and that the other episodes will infringe, too, if they appropriate the audiobook in a similar manner.” They add, “We will take the legal action we deem necessary to redress our and Woody Allen’s rights in his intellectual property.” A representative for directors Amy […]